Biden Moves Quickly on US Government Transition 

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Democrat Joe Biden, the projected winner of the long and contentious U.S. presidential election over Republican President Donald Trump, moved quickly Sunday to start preparations to take over the U.S. government when he is inaugurated January 20 and reverse some key Trump policies. President-elect Biden and his running mate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, launched a website for their transition to power, saying they would immediately focus on the coronavirus pandemic, the recession in the world’s biggest economy wrought by the pandemic, climate change and systemic racism. “We are preparing to lead on Day One, ensuring the Biden-Harris administration is able to takemore

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Former Republican US President Bush Congratulates Biden

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Former Republican U.S. President George W. Bush on Sunday congratulated the projected winner of last week’s election, Joe Biden, saying the Democratic president-elect had “won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.”Bush, who served as the country’s chief executive from 2001 to early 2009, said he has “political differences” with Biden, but that he offered him “my prayers for his success and my pledge to help in any way I can.” Bush also called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her.Bush said he thanked Biden for the “patriotic message” he delivered Saturday night in Wilmington, Delaware, near his homemore

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Foreign Students Look Forward to Visa Stability

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International students in the U.S. whose studies and immigration status have undergone changes during President Donald Trump’s administration say they hope their stays will stabilize with President-elect Joe Biden.“I do believe that … international students would feel more secure here in the U.S. while pursuing their degrees,” said Ukrainian Roman Ivasiy, a student at Georgia State University. “Especially during the COVID crisis, when most of the programs switched to the online format.”The COVID pandemic has shut down college and university campuses across the U.S. since March, leaving foreign students in limbo and in jeopardy of losing their student visa status.FILEmore

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Biden Seeks Unity After Election Win

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President-elect Joe Biden promoted a message of unity and bridging America’s political divide hours after news networks projected him winning the U.S. presidential election. VOA White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports from Washington. Producer: Barry Unger  …

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From Refugee to Representative, US Candidates Celebrate Election Victories

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Oballa Oballa’s trek to Election Day was a long and improbable one.He grew up in the Gambella region of Ethiopia, where he witnessed Oballa Oballa has been elected to the City Council of his adopted hometown of Austin, Minnesota. He is the first refugee, first immigrant and first person of color to serve on the council. (Photo courtesy Oballa Oballa)Oballa said he wanted to be politically active as soon as he arrived in the U.S. in 2013. He served as president of the student senate at his community college and helped pass state legislation to address food insecurity on communitymore

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Biden Pledges to Unify, Not Divide US in Address to Nation

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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the projected winner of the U.S. presidency, pledged to be “a president who seeks not to divide, but unify” the country during an address to the nation Saturday night from Wilmington, Delaware.Echoing earlier speeches, Biden said it is “time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again.”Biden urged his supporters to reach out to those who didn’t vote for him, and he acknowledged the disappointment of those who support President Donald Trump.“I’ve lost a couple times myself,” Biden said. “Now, let’s give each othermore

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Harris Makes History Amid Rough and Tumble of Campaign

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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris parlayed a career as a California prosecutor, attorney general and U.S. senator to the second most powerful job in the United States.Harris will be the first African American woman and first South Asian American to be vice president when she and President-elect Joe Biden take their oaths of office on January 20.She introduced herself at the Democratic convention as the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants and pledged to work to make America more inclusive after four years of the Trump administration, which she described as making the country more divided.Harris has said that she andmore

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Young Voters Celebrate Biden’s Projected Election Win

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Young voters, including many of color, turned out in record numbers this election and overwhelmingly supported the Democratic ticket, helping to push projected election winners Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to secure the highest offices in the U.S.“This victory belongs to young people,” said Rachel Fleischer, executive director of the Washington-based youth advocacy group Young Invincibles, in a statement released Saturday. “Young voters … came out in force and continue to actively shape the future of our country. Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump attend a ‘Stop the Steal’ protest outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, following the announcement that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has won the 2020 election,more

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Biden, on His Third Try, Makes It to Summit of US Political Life

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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic fixture on the American political scene for nearly a half-century, won the White House on his third try, according to projections made Saturday.When he is inaugurated, January 20, 2021, he will become the country’s 46th chief executive. By then, he will be 78, the oldest U.S. president ever elected, surpassing Donald Trump, who was 70 when he entered the White House. Biden failed to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008, drawing little support either year.A senator from the small eastern state of Delaware for 36 years, and former U.S.more

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A Defiant Trump Golfs as Media Declare His Defeat

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U.S. President Donald Trump was on a golf outing at his private country club in northern Virginia when U.S. media organizations projected his reelection defeat.After traveling via motorcade from the White House, Trump walked onto his golf course as the release of the latest vote tabulations from Pennsylvania prompted news outlets – including Trump’s favored Fox News – to declare that former Vice President Joe Biden would become the 46th president of the United States.That spared the president from hearing the cheers and honking of horns near the White House when the Biden victory was announced on television and radiomore

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Biden Transition Team Didn’t Wait for Verdict to Get Busy 

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Joe Biden’s transition team didn’t wait for a verdict in the presidential race before getting to work. Well before Saturday’s victory for Biden, longtime aide Ted Kaufman had been leading efforts to ensure the former vice president can begin building out a government in anticipation of a victory.  Kaufman is a former senator from Delaware who was appointed to fill the seat vacated when Biden was elected vice president. He also worked on Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008, and helped write legislation formalizing the presidential transition process.  Biden first asked Kaufman to start work on a just-in-case transition in April, shortly aftermore

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Kamala Harris Becomes First Woman of Color Elected US Vice President

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Kamala Harris is making history as the first woman of color elected vice president of the United States, shattering barriers that have kept men — almost all of them white — entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.The 56-year-old California senator is also the first person of Black and South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency. She represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington’s power centers. Her Black identity has allowed her to speak in personal terms in a year of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism.Kamalamore

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Joe Biden Is Projected to Win US Presidential Election

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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a fixture in Washington political circles for nearly a half century, has been projected the winner of the U.S. presidency and stands to be inaugurated January 20, becoming the country’s oldest leader ever.Biden, a Democrat who served 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as second in command to former President Barack Obama, was projected by news organizations to have defeated incumbent Republican President Donald Trump in a bitter campaign and after days of post-election ballot counting. The results are still to be officially certified and are subject to court challenges, butmore

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Biden Confident of Impending Election Victory as Pennsylvania Lead Tops 20,000 Votes

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Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s lead over U.S. President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania climbed from 5,000 votes early Friday to about 29,000 votes by late night, and that margin is expected to grow as remaining ballots are counted. Taking this pivotal state would propel Biden over the required threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidential election.Biden is also ahead in Georgia by more than 4,000 votes and maintains clear leads in Arizona and Nevada, although these races have not yet been called for either candidate.Addressing supporters Friday, amid speculation he would be projected the winner in Pennsylvania,more

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Trump Chief of Staff Meadows Diagnosed With COVID-19

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President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows has been diagnosed with the coronavirus as the nation sets daily records for confirmed cases for the pandemic.Two senior administration officials confirmed Friday that Meadows had tested positive for the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 Americans so far this year.Meadows traveled with Trump in the run-up to Election Day and last appeared in public early Wednesday morning without a mask as Trump falsely declared victory in the vote count. He had been one of the close aides around Trump when the president came down with the virus more than amore

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Pressure on Police as Presidential Vote Counting Nears an End

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Election officials across the United States are increasingly calling on police and federal law enforcement to help keep the peace as the number of ballots left to be tallied winds down.From Philadelphia to Phoenix, lines of uniformed police officers are becoming commonplace, separating partiers and protesters from workers counting ballots inside government buildings and other venues.So far, the gatherings, while loud, have been peaceful. But officials warn that tensions are simmering as the nation gets closer to declaring a winner.“It’s just troubling for my employees. I have employees who are nervous leaving the building, and rightfully so,” Joe Gloria, the registrarmore

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Bannon Lawyer Quits Fraud Case After Inflammatory Remarks

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A lawyer for President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, quit defending him in a federal fraud case a day after Bannon made inflammatory comments about Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray. In a letter dated Friday, defense attorney William Burck told a federal court judge in New York City that he was withdrawing from the case. He did not give a reason why. Reached by email, Burck declined to discuss the decision. The lawyer quit after Bannon suggested on an online broadcast that Fauci and Wray should be beheaded for being disloyal to the president. The remarks promptedmore

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Biden’s Election Lead Grows as Trump Disputes Results

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Democratic candidate Joe Biden continues to build on the razor-thin leads he gained early Friday over Republican President Donald Trump in the states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, where vote counting continues. While those races are still too close call, Biden is strongly positioned to win the U.S. presidential election. The Trump campaign is disputing the results, saying in a statement Friday, “this election is not over.” The campaign says the president will ultimately win as a result of expected recounts in close state races and its legal challenges based on unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud and irregularities. Biden currently leads in themore

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Q&A: Trump’s Campaign Lawsuits

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President Donald Trump promised litigation if voting results do not show that he has won the presidential election.  QUESTION: How many lawsuits have been filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign?  ANSWER: The Trump campaign has filed at least six lawsuits in battleground states since Election Day. Activists from both parties have also filed lawsuits.  Q: Has the Biden campaign filed any lawsuits yet? A: The Biden campaign has a legal team assembled but has not initiated litigation. Q: Has there been any action taken on lawsuits yet? A: In Georgia, a state judge dismissed a lawsuit over a claim that 53 mail-in ballots were not receivedmore

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Trump Backers, Biden Supporters Duel as Vote Count Continues

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Supporters of President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden faced off in largely peaceful demonstrations Thursday and early Friday in battleground states, where votes in the U.S. presidential election were still being counted.Both sides were energized by Trump’s aggressive challenge to the vote-counting process, which has shown Biden slowly building an Electoral College lead over Trump.In the closely contested state of Arizona, backers of the two candidates scuffled briefly Thursday outside the Maricopa County Elections Department in the city of Phoenix. The fracas occurred after several heavily armed right-wing groups gathered at the site while election workers were countingmore

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California Votes to Continue Affirmative Action Ban

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A public vote to reinstate affirmative action in admissions at public universities in California failed in this week’s elections.Supporters of Proposition 16 hoped the state would return to allowing race and gender to be a factor in admissions at public universities, but the measure was defeated 56% to 44%.Ten U.S. states have banned such a policy – known as affirmative action: California, Texas, Washington, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Arizona, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Idaho.With nine universities and 285,000 students, the University of California system is the largest in the United States. In 1996, it was among the first university systems tomore

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