Biden gets green light but Trump remains defiant

President-elect Joe Biden’s transition is officially a success.

Three weeks after Election Day, President Donald Trump relented and allowed the head of the General Services Administration to acknowledge that Biden is the “apparent winner.”

That means Biden and his team can start digging deeper into Trump’s coronavirus vaccine planning and assessing the condition of federal agencies.

How Jennifer A. Dlouhy The change reportedly came after the key state of Michigan certified Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 vote, at least nine Republican senators called for the transition to begin, and Trump’s legal team suffered further setbacks.

While Trump made it clear that he was not ready to compromise, the statement gives Biden and his team access to agency officials, informational books and about $ 6 million in funding.

Biden continued to build his administration yesterday, selecting Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary, a sign that he plans to act aggressively to jumpstart the world’s largest economy.

He also delivered a not-so-subtle rebuke to Trump for his choice to lead two key national security agencies: Avril Haines as his director of national intelligence and Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of national security.

Haines, a former senior CIA official with years of experience in the espionage community, would fill a position that Trump had largely reserved for people best known for their loyalty to him, while Mayorkas would become the first Latino and immigrant. in leading an agency that has played a central role in Trump’s widely criticized border crackdown.

Increasingly, Trump’s unwillingness to admit defeat seems less and less relevant.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry will be named special presidential envoy for climate, a sign that Biden plans to raise the issue of global warming..

Let us know how we are doing or what we are missing at [email protected].

Global headlines

Avoiding a rebellion | The UK is considering banning Huawei 5G equipment next year to appease lawmakers who are pushing for tougher restrictions on the Chinese tech giant. Kitty donaldson Y Thomas seal report. MPs from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party want stricter rules on companies using Huawei equipment in exchange for backing telecom security legislation that will be tabled in parliament next week.

• Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned that intensifying competition between the United States and China is putting pressure on other nations to choose sides, saying tough decisions benefit no one.

Getting ready | As the global positions for Biden’s move to the White House, few leaders are moving as fast as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the next four years will be more difficult to navigate than the last. The President of Turkey and his advisers know the former Vice President of the United States well, but, as Champion Marc Y Nick Wadhams Explain, that’s not necessarily an advantage.

Follow up | As we approach the first anniversary of the coronavirus outbreak, millions of people are leading largely normal lives, even as millions of others are locked up and preparing for a Christmas season without social gatherings. To better understand that dichotomy, Bloomberg created the Covid Resilience Ranking. It ranks 53 major economies on 10 metrics, from infection levels and deaths to people’s mobility and access to cutting-edge vaccines.

• Read about growing concern that new waves of Covid-19 may still devastate South Asia, after neighbors India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka managed to overcome the first surge.
• Hong Kong will shutters, nightclubs and bathhouses until December 2, when cases jump again in the Asian financial center.

Already seen | The prolonged absence of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune since he traveled to Germany last month for treatment of Covid-19 has surpassed a vote on the constitution and the possible war in Western Sahara as a hot topic of political discussion. He is causing uncomfortable echoes of his veteran predecessor, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was hospitalized abroad for months before his re-election bid sparked massive riots and his downfall last year.

Middle East attack | Saudi Arabia said Houthi rebels in Yemen targeted an oil facility in the kingdom’s second-largest city, Jeddah, in a missile strike similar to one in 2019 that caused a brief spike in crude prices. The Houthis, Shiites who have been fighting a civil war for half a decade against the United Nations-backed government of Yemen, are counting on the support of Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran in what the UN has called the worst humanitarian crisis. man-made.

What to see

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to visit Bahrain soon at the invitation of the country’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa after the two leaders spoke by phone today.

• French President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation tonight to lay out his plans for gradual easing of coronavirus restrictions.
• Thierry Baudet, leader of the Dutch Populist Forum for Democracy, resigned last night from his role in the party, the latest in a series of departures following accusations of anti-Semitic and homophobic rhetoric.

And finally … Uniformed security at the gates, no unauthorized visitors and a censored “wall of democracy”: One year after a violent clash between student protesters and the police, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is closed. How Shawna kwan Y so happy Reportedly, the protest movement has died down and concerns about freedom are mounting in an education system that has attracted international teachers and students and attracted local high achievers to stay home.

– With the assistance of Michael Winfrey, Karl Maier and Rosalind Mathieson