Trump summons Michigan GOP leaders for extraordinary meeting

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NOV 19, 2020 @ 1700 GMT | FILE – In this May 6, 2020, file photo, Michigan Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, left, and Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfield announce a lawsuit to combat the coronavirus pandemic orders at the Capitol building in Lansing, Mich. President Donald Trump summoned Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders to the White House for a meeting Friday, Nov. 20, amid a GOP push to overturn the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state. (AP File Photo)

DETROIT, United States (AP) — President Donald Trump summoned Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders to the White House for an extraordinary meeting Friday amid a long shot GOP push to subvert the democratic process that handed the battleground state to Democrat Joe Biden.

Two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Trump invited Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield. They agreed to go, according to a state official aware of the leaders’ plans. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing private conversations.

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Pentagon to cut troop levels to 2,500 in Iraq, Afghanistan

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NOV 18, 2020 @ 1800 GMT | In this Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, image taken from a video provided by Defense.gov Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller speaks at the Pentagon in Washington. Miller said Tuesday that the U.S. will reduce troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan by mid-January, asserting that the decision fulfills President Donald Trump’s pledge to bring forces home from America’s long wars even as Republicans and U.S. allies warn of the dangers of withdrawing before conditions are right. (Defense.gov via AP)

WASHINGTON, United States (AP) — Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said Tuesday the U.S. will reduce troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan by mid-January, asserting that the decision fulfills President Donald Trump’s pledge to bring forces home from America’s long wars even as Republicans and U.S. allies warn of the dangers of withdrawing before conditions are right.

The plan will accelerate troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan in Trump’s final days in office, despite arguments from senior military officials in favor of a slower, more methodical pullout to preserve hard-fought gains. Trump has refused to concede his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, who takes office Jan. 20, just five days after the troop withdrawals are to finish.

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Islamist sit-in outside Pakistani capital targets France

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NOV 16, 2020 @ 1400 GMT | ISLAMABAD, Pakistan | Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, a religious political party, block a main highway during an anti-France rally in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. The supporters are protesting the French President Emmanuel Macron over his recent statements and the republishing in France of caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad they deem blasphemous. (AP Photo)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Thousands of supporters of a radical cleric’s political party rallied on the outskirts of Islamabad on Monday demanding the Pakistani government cut diplomatic ties with France over the republishing of caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, which they deem blasphemous.

A sit-in Monday by supporters of Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan at an important intersection connecting the garrison city of Rawalpindi with the capital Islamabad started spontaneously. It followed the protest Sunday night organized by TLP chief Khadim Husain Rizvi. Protesters demanded the government recall Pakistan’s ambassador from France and expel the French ambassador in Islamabad.

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US sec’y of state begins difficult 7-nation tour in France

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NOV 14, 2020 @ 1700 GMT | U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, center, and his wife Susan, right, embrace U.S. Ambassador to France Jamie McCourt, left, after stepping off a plane at Paris Le Bourget Airport, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020, in Le Bourget, France. Pompeo is beginning a 10-day trip to Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo)

PARIS, France (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed “global challenges” with a handful of members of a Paris think tank Saturday at the start of a seven-country tour of Europe and the Middle East, travels that were certain to be awkward since all the nations on his schedule have congratulated President-elect Joe Biden for winning the White House.

Pompeo was an all but invisible U.S. envoy on what may be his last official trip to France, tweeting out news of his arrival and from his private meeting with members of the Institut Montaigne, accompanied by photos.

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Oregon shatters COVID-19 daily case record after Halloween

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NOV 13, 2020 @ 1430 GMT | Oregon Gov. Kate Brown attends a news conference Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Brown and Oregon health officials warned Tuesday of the capacity challenges facing hospitals as COVID-19 case counts continue to spike in the state. (Pool Photo via AP)

PORTLAND, United States (AP) — Oregon tallied 1,122 new confirmed or presumptive cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, shattering its previous record and blowing past more than 1,000 new daily cases for the first time as the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly statewide. Four new deaths were reported.

The previous daily record was 988 on Saturday. The percent of people testing positive was nearly 12% statewide, more than double what it was over the summer months, according to data from the Oregon Health Authority. And Multnomah County, home to Portland, had 350 cases on Thursday, breaking Wednesday’s record of nearly 300 cases.

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Report sounds an alarm on ongoing decline of US coral reefs

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NOV 11, 2020 @ 1400 GMT | FILE – In this Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012, file photo, pieces of stag horn coral are shown growing in Nova Southeastern University’s offshore coral reef nursery in about 22-feet of water, near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. A first of its kind assessment of the United States’ coral reefs is again sounding the alarm over the continued decline of these sensitive underwater ecosystems, which scientists deem essential to the health of the world’s oceans amid persistent threats from human activity and climate change. The report was released Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Maryland. (AP File Photo)

TALLAHASSEE, United States (AP) — A first of its kind assessment of coral reefs in U.S. waters is again sounding the alarm over the continued decline of these sensitive underwater ecosystems, which scientists deem essential to the health of the world’s oceans amid the environmental effects posed by human activity and climate change.

The report, released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Maryland, took stock of the health of coral reefs under U.S. jurisdiction, from Guam and Hawaii in the Pacific to Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Atlantic.

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UK bans non-resident arrivals from Denmark over mink fears

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NOV 9, 2020 @ 1245 GMT | Killed mink are buried at Karup Military Airport in Jutland, Denmark, Sunday, Nov. 8 2020. To prevent infection from spreading from the animals, the animals are encapsulated in layers of calcium. More than a quarter million Danes have gone into lockdown in a northern region of the country where a mutated variation of the coronavirus has infected minks being farmed for their fur, leading to an order to kill millions of the animals. (Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

LONDON (AP) — The British government has banned freight drivers who have traveled through Denmark over the past 14 days and aren’t residents of the U.K. from entering England, as it tightened travel restrictions from a country witnessing widespread coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms.

Under the new rules that came into force at 4 a.m. Sunday, passenger planes and ships traveling from Denmark, and carrying accompanying freight, also won’t be allowed to dock. Freight drivers had been exempt from the ban.

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Study: Fix to food climate problem doesn’t require veganism

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NOV 6, 2020 @ 1100 GMT | FILE – In this Dec. 9, 2015 file photo, cattle graze in a pasture against a backdrop of wind turbines near Vesper, Kan. A study published on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020 in the journal Science, says how we grow, eat and waste food is a big climate change problem that may keep the world from reaching its temperature-limiting goals. (AP File Photo)

WASHINGTON, United States (AP) The world likely can’t keep global warming to a relatively safe minimum unless we change how we grow, eat and throw away our food, but we don’t need to all go vegan, a new study says.

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In campaign’s final days, Trump hopes rallies mean big votes

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NOV 1, 2020 @ 1800 GMT | U.S President Donald Trump arrives Oakland County International Airport, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020, in Waterford Township, Mich. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON, United States (AP) — U.S President Donald Trump on Sunday launched one final test of whether the large crowds at his rallies will translate into votes as he races through the final 48 hours of the 2020 campaign with an onslaught of events in the states that could decide the race.

A rally north of Detroit on a frigid morning kicked off a frenzied blitz of campaigning over the last two days before the election, with nine more rallies to go. Down in the polls and at a cash disadvantage to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump is turning to these large gatherings to help keep his message in front of voters.

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Expect a lot more of the same if Trump wins a second term

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OCT 31, 2020 @ 1800 GMT | U.S President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Rochester, Minn. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S President Donald Trump has consistently pointed to tax cuts and regulatory relief as key successes of his first four years in office. He has repeatedly pushed for the end of the Obama-era health law but has yet to deliver a plan to replace it. And he has spent most of this year defending his response to the coronavirus pandemic while fighting openly with scientists and medical experts about vaccines, treatments and more.

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