Monday AP Morning Wire

Trump tweets 'he won' about Biden; still claims vote rigged, not conceding.

Nov 16, 2020 View in Browser  AP MORNING WIRE Good morning. In today's AP Morning Wire:   Trump tweets 'he won' about Biden; still claims vote rigged, not conceding. Two states announce new virus restrictions as US cases hit 11M. Mexico hits 1M infections; UK's Johnson in quarantine but says he's fit. After Trump, will the ever-present presidency recede a bit for Americans?   TAMER FAKAHANY DEPUTY DIRECTOR - GLOBAL NEWS COORDINATION, LONDON The Rundown AP PHOTO/MANUEL BALCE CENETA Trump tweets about Biden, 'he won;' still claims vote rigged; Trump campaign retreats from key claim in Pennsylvania vote lawsuit; Biden seeks window on vaccine plans    President Donald Trump tried to walk back an apparent acknowledgement that President-elect Joe Biden won the election and was at pains to insist he would keep trying to overturn the result with no concession in sight.   Trump's earlier comments had given some hope that the White House was ready to begin working on a transition with Biden's team. Not so fast, Trump would soon say.   Trump, without using Biden's name, said "He won" as part of a tweet that made baseless claims about a "rigged" election. But when he saw how his comments were being interpreted as his first public acknowledgment of a Biden victory, Trump quickly reversed course, Kevin Freking reports.   In the meantime, Trump's campaign is withdrawing a central part of its lawsuit seeking to stop the certification of election results in Pennsylvania. Biden captured the key battleground state to help win the White House.   Ahead of a Tuesday hearing in the case, Trump's campaign dropped the allegation that hundreds of thousands of mail-in and absentee ballots were illegally processed without its representatives watching, Marc Levy reports.   The campaign's slimmed-down lawsuit maintains its claim that Democratic voters were treated more favorably than Republican voters in fixing mail-in ballots that were going to be disqualified for a technicality.    Biden's scientific advisers, meanwhile, plan to meet with vaccine makers even as a stalled presidential transition keeps them out of the loop on government plans to inoculate all Americans against COVID-19.   Biden chief of staff Ron Klain says Trump's refusal to accept that he lost the election means the Biden team lacks a clear picture of the government's plans for a mass vaccination campaign that will last for most of next year.   The nation's pre-eminent infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says it would be better if government scientists could start working with the Biden team, Ricardo Alosno-Zaldivar and Will Weissert report.   AP FACT CHECK: Trump's false claims about Biden win, vaccine over the past week.   Democracy on Trial? It's been an election without precedent. A sitting American president is trying to convince the people that they should not believe the numbers that clearly demonstrate the other candidate won. Trump 's unsupported claims of massive voting fraud, demand of recounts and calls for audits are all an effort to discredit the outcome and even put democracy itself on trial, Michael Tackett and Calvin Woodward report.   Women: They were a key factor in Joe Biden's presidential victory; if only men had voted, Trump would have won. But despite expectations of a historic gender gap repudiating Trump, the results are more complicated. The gender gap remained essentially steady from past elections, including 2016. And while Biden dominated among Black women and suburban women, Trump had a modest advantage among white women, Jocelyn Noveck reports.  AP PHOTO/RICHARD DREW Two states announce new virus restrictions as US cases hit 11 million; US poll workers contract virus, but Election Day link is unclear   Michigan and Washington joined several other states in announcing renewed efforts to combat the coronavirus as more than 11 million cases have been reported in the United States.   The most recent million came in less than a week, and as many Americans prepare to observe a Thanksgiving holiday changed by the pandemic.   The two states' actions also come after Texas and California last week each marked more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases.   Poll workers in some U.S. states who came in contact with voters on Election Day have tested positive. Public health officials caution, however, that there's no way to determine whether in-person voting on Nov. 3 is to blame as COVID-19 spreads rapidly nationwide, Anthony Izaguirre reports.   Before the election, officials outfitted polling places with protective gear, sanitizing supplies and putting in social distancing. Most poll workers were required to wear masks. If all the rules were followed, experts say the virus risks should have been minimal.   International Students: Colleges in the U.S. have seen a sharp enrollment drop among international students this fall. University administrators say a number of hurdles and new policies brought on by the pandemic are to blame, John Seewer and Colin Binkley report.    Mall Santas: Malls are doing all they can to keep Santa Claus safe from the coronavirus, including banning kids from sitting on his knee, completely changing what a Santa visit looks like. Kids will have to tell him what they want for Christmas from six feet away, and sometimes from behind plexiglass, and both Santa and visitors may need to wear a face mask, Joseph Pisani reports. AP PHOTO/EDUARDO VERDUGO Mexico reaches 1 million virus cases, nears 100,000 deaths; UK's Johnson in quarantine but declares himself fit, working   Mexico has registered more than 1 million coronavirus cases and nearly 100,000 test-confirmed deaths, though officials agree the number is probably much higher.   How did Mexico get here? By marching defiantly against many internationally accepted practices in pandemic management, from face mask wearing to lockdowns, testing and contact tracing, report Mark Stevenson and Diego Delgado.   British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he is as "fit as a butcher's dog" after being instructed to self-isolate for 14 days because he recently came in contact with someone who has since contracted coronavirus, Pan Pylas reports.   In a video message from his London apartment, Johnson said it didn't matter that he has already endured COVID-19 and is "bursting with antibodies." The quarantine requirement comes at the start of a crucial week for Johnson's Conservative government that includes discussions over a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union. In April, Johnson was hospitalized in intensive care for three nights after contracting the virus.   Amnesty International said Belgium authorities "abandoned" thousands of elderly people who died in nursing homes during the pandemic in a report that described those actions as "human rights violations."    German Chancellor Angela Merkel will assess the effects of a nearly two-week-long partial lockdown with state governors in a video conference. Germany went into a partial lockdown at the beginning of November with new rules that closed restaurants, cafes and cultural institutions but left open schools and stores after virus figures spiked exponentially in October.   Africa Back to School: As schools reopen in some African countries after months of lockdown, relief is matched by anxiety over everything from how to raise tuition fees amid the financial strain wrought by the pandemic to how to protect students in crowded classrooms, Rodney Muhumuza and Tom Odula report.   Europe's Restaurants: For Europe's great chefs, the virus is turning life into a struggle for survival. Many a three-star Michelin meal has been put into a takeout box and sent out on Deliveroo scooters, as renowned chefs try to scrape through a second lockdown that is threatening the lucrative Christmas season. Across Europe, exclusive restaurants have lost the precious appeal of the luxury dining experience. And since their costs are higher than other restaurants, they feel the pain of lockdowns more than most, Raf Casert and Virginia Mayo report.   Dubai Nightlife: As the pandemic mutes Dubai's live-music scene, the Filipino show bands that have animated the city's storied nightlife are being disproportionately squeezed. Many are out of work and out of money, struggling to survive in overcrowded dormitories at the mercy of employers. Others are trying to go home after losing their residency. Those lucky enough to have gigs at reopened clubs find themselves in a new reality, Isabel DeBre reports from Dubai.    Tokyo Olympics: Athletes, coaches and fans arriving for next year's postponed Games are likely to face requirements to be vaccinated to protect the Japanese public, IOC President Thomas Bach said after meeting with new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. It was Bach's first meeting with Suga and his first trip to Japan since the 2020 Olympics were postponed, Stephen Wade reports.  AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER The Ever-Present Presidency After Donald Trump, will the highest office in the land recede a bit for Americans?   Adored or despised, from late-night tweet storms to oft-repeated untruths to provocative statements about everything from the kneeling of American football players to buying Greenland, there's one thing it has been almost impossible to do with Donald Trump these past four years: ignore him.   Communication is instantaneous, and Americans — even a president — are often measured by the quantity and volume what is now called their "content."   Since he took office in 2017, Trump has been a different kind of president when it comes to communication, favoring the deluge. It's a long way from what President Calvin Coolidge wrote in 1929 after he left office: "The words of a president have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately."   As another administration prepares to take the reins, it's hard to imagine a Joe Biden presidency generating as much drama or commanding as much daily mindshare. Or have the Trump years forever changed the place the presidency occupies in American life and Americans' lives? Only time will tell. AP National Writer Ted Anthony has this nuanced piece. Other Top Stories Peru now has no president as crisis takes chaotic turn Who is the president of Peru? That answer to that question early today is no one. The Latin American nation's political turmoil took a chaotic turn Sunday when interim leader Manuel Merino quit and Congress couldn't decide on his replacement. That leaves Peru rudderless and in crisis less than a week after legislators ignited a storm of protest by removing President Martín Vizcarra, an anti-corruption crusader highly popular among Peruvians. Ethiopia's Tigray leader confirms firing missiles at Eritrea The leader of Ethiopia's rebellious Tigray region has confirmed firing missiles at neighboring Eritrea's capital, and he is threatening more, saying that "we will take any legitimate military target and we will fire." The confirmation by Tigray regional President Debretsion Gebremichael, in an interview with the AP, marks a huge escalation as the deadly fighting in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region spills across an international border. The United States is strongly condemning what it calls the "efforts to internationalize the conflict." Eritrea, one of the world's  most reclusive nations. has not commented. Syria's longtime Foreign Minister al-Moallem dies age 79 Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, a career diplomat who became one of the country's most prominent faces during the uprising against President Bashar Assad, has died at 79. Al-Moallem, who served as ambassador to Washington for nine years starting in 1990 during Syria's on-and-off peace talks with Israel, was a close confidant of Assad known for his loyalty and hard-line position against the opposition.  SpaceX launches 2nd crew, regular station crew flights begin Four astronauts are in orbit and on their way to the International Space Station. Their launch by SpaceX kicks off regular crew flights from the U.S. The Falcon rocket thundered into the night from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Dragon capsule carrying three Americans and one Japanese is due to reach the orbiting outpost late today and will remain there until spring. The astronauts named their capsule Resilience in light of the pandemic and other 2020 hardships. SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk was sidelined by the virus himself.  We'll leave you with this...   Renowned Rockefeller Center Christmas tree goes up, lighting is on Dec. 2   READ MORE ON AP NEWS GET THE APP   Download the AP News app to get breaking news alerts from AP on your phone, tablet or watch.         About us    2020 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.    200 Liberty St. New York, NY 10128   This email was sent to Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog  *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally