WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump's desperate bid to overturn the US election was dealt a new setback on Saturday (Nov 21) when a federal judge threw out his campaign's attempt to invalidate millions of votes in Pennsylvania.
US District Court Judge Matthew Brann ruled that the Trump campaign's efforts to stop Pennsylvania officials from certifying Democrat Joe Biden as the winner in the state was "unsupported by evidence".
"This Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations," Brann wrote.
"In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state," he wrote.
The lawsuit sought to stop officials from certifying Biden's victory in the state, arguing that some counties wrongly allowed voters to fix errors on their mail ballots.
Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Trump had "exhausted all plausible legal options" to challenge the result in Pennsylvania. He called on Trump to concede the election and congratulated Biden on his victory.
Few other Republicans in Congress have called on Trump to concede.
Trump's lawyers said they would appeal the ruling, with the hopes of quickly reaching the US Supreme Court.
"We are disappointed we did not at least get the opportunity to present our evidence at a hearing. Unfortunately the censorship continues," Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference on legal challenges to vote counting in Pennsylvania, Saturday Nov. 7, 2020, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
For Trump to have any hope of overturning the election, he needs to reverse the outcome in Pennsylvania, which is scheduled to be certified by state officials on Monday.
Democrats said Saturday's scathing verdict was further proof that Trump's accusations of fraud are baseless.
"Our country will not tolerate Trump's attempt to reverse the results of an election that he decisively lost," Biden spokesman Michael Gwin said in a statement.
Giuliani, who made his first courtroom appearance in 30 years for a hearing in the case on Tuesday, has floated a variety of conspiracy theories as the Trump team alleged that the election was marred by widespread voter fraud.
Trump did not directly address the ruling as he re-aired familiar grievances on Twitter. "Fake ballots, dead people voting, no Republican Poll Watchers allowed, & more!" he wrote.
Election officials across the country say there was no widespread fraud, and Trump's own administration has called the election "the most secure in American history".
Trump's campaign and its allies have filed dozens of lawsuits across the country challenging the results.
They have had little success so far, and time is running out to build a case as some states have started formalising results. In Pennsylvania, counties are due to file official results on Monday to the secretary of state, who will then certify the tallies. Biden leads Trump by more than 81,000 votes in the state.
Benjamin Geffen of the Public Interest Law Center, who was involved in the case, said Saturday's ruling showed Trump will not be able to overturn Biden's Pennsylvania victory in court.
"As far as litigation goes I believe this is the end of the line for them," he said.
UNPRECEDENTED EFFORT
Trump is seeking to invalidate or change the election results through recounts and direct pressure on lawmakers in several states. He would need to prevail in at least three states to prevent Biden from being sworn in as president on Jan 20 - an unprecedented action.
In Michigan, Republicans wrote to state authorities on Saturday asking them to wait 14 days to certify Biden's victory to allow for an audit of ballots in Wayne County, which includes the majority-black city of Detroit. The letter cited allegations of "irregularities" that have not been substantiated. Biden won 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan.
That effort faces long odds. A spokesperson for Michigan's top election authority said state law does not allow for audits before the vote is certified, which is due to take place on Monday. Allegations of widespread fraud have been found to be baseless, the spokesperson said.
Two leading Republican Michigan lawmakers who came to Washington at Trump's behest said after meeting him on Friday that they had no information that would change the outcome of the election in the state.
In Wisconsin, an official said poorly trained observers for the Trump campaign were slowing a partial recount by challenging every ballot and raising other objections.
"Observers are disruptive. They are asking question after question, telling the tablulators to stop, stop what they're doing and that is out of line, that's not acceptable," Milwaukee County Clerk George Christianson told reporters.
A manual recount and audit in Georgia confirmed Biden on Friday as the winner in the southern state, the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in nearly three decades.
The Trump campaign has two business days to request a recount in Georgia. Trump's legal team has also said it plans a lawsuit in the state, but has not provided specifics.
Trump's accusations have continued to inflame his hard-core Republican base.
Hundreds of supporters gathered at the statehouse in Atlanta on Saturday, with video posted online showing speakers denouncing the media for calling Biden the election winner, as well as state Republican leaders for certifying the results.
Police in riot gear were deployed to separate them from counterprotesters who gathered nearby.
The General Services Administration, run by a Trump appointee, has not recognised Biden's victory, preventing his team from gaining access to government office space and funding normally provided to an incoming administration ahead of Inauguration Day on Jan 20.
Critics say the delay and Trump's refusal to concede have serious implications for national security and the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 255,000 Americans.
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump's desperate bid to overturn the US election was dealt a new setback on Saturday (Nov 21) when a federal judge threw out his campaign's attempt to invalidate millions of votes in Pennsylvania.
US District Court Judge Matthew Brann ruled that the Trump campaign's efforts to stop Pennsylvania officials from certifying Democrat Joe Biden as the winner in the state was "unsupported by evidence".
"This Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations," Brann wrote.
"In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state," he wrote.
The lawsuit sought to stop officials from certifying Biden's victory in the state, arguing that some counties wrongly allowed voters to fix errors on their mail ballots.
Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Trump had "exhausted all plausible legal options" to challenge the result in Pennsylvania. He called on Trump to concede the election and congratulated Biden on his victory.
Few other Republicans in Congress have called on Trump to concede.
Trump's lawyers said they would appeal the ruling, with the hopes of quickly reaching the US Supreme Court.
"We are disappointed we did not at least get the opportunity to present our evidence at a hearing. Unfortunately the censorship continues," Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference on legal challenges to vote counting in Pennsylvania, Saturday Nov. 7, 2020, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
For Trump to have any hope of overturning the election, he needs to reverse the outcome in Pennsylvania, which is scheduled to be certified by state officials on Monday.
Democrats said Saturday's scathing verdict was further proof that Trump's accusations of fraud are baseless.
"Our country will not tolerate Trump's attempt to reverse the results of an election that he decisively lost," Biden spokesman Michael Gwin said in a statement.
Giuliani, who made his first courtroom appearance in 30 years for a hearing in the case on Tuesday, has floated a variety of conspiracy theories as the Trump team alleged that the election was marred by widespread voter fraud.
Trump did not directly address the ruling as he re-aired familiar grievances on Twitter. "Fake ballots, dead people voting, no Republican Poll Watchers allowed, & more!" he wrote.
Election officials across the country say there was no widespread fraud, and Trump's own administration has called the election "the most secure in American history".
Trump's campaign and its allies have filed dozens of lawsuits across the country challenging the results.
They have had little success so far, and time is running out to build a case as some states have started formalising results. In Pennsylvania, counties are due to file official results on Monday to the secretary of state, who will then certify the tallies. Biden leads Trump by more than 81,000 votes in the state.
Benjamin Geffen of the Public Interest Law Center, who was involved in the case, said Saturday's ruling showed Trump will not be able to overturn Biden's Pennsylvania victory in court.
"As far as litigation goes I believe this is the end of the line for them," he said.
UNPRECEDENTED EFFORT
Trump is seeking to invalidate or change the election results through recounts and direct pressure on lawmakers in several states. He would need to prevail in at least three states to prevent Biden from being sworn in as president on Jan 20 - an unprecedented action.
In Michigan, Republicans wrote to state authorities on Saturday asking them to wait 14 days to certify Biden's victory to allow for an audit of ballots in Wayne County, which includes the majority-black city of Detroit. The letter cited allegations of "irregularities" that have not been substantiated. Biden won 154,000 more votes than Trump in Michigan.
That effort faces long odds. A spokesperson for Michigan's top election authority said state law does not allow for audits before the vote is certified, which is due to take place on Monday. Allegations of widespread fraud have been found to be baseless, the spokesperson said.
Two leading Republican Michigan lawmakers who came to Washington at Trump's behest said after meeting him on Friday that they had no information that would change the outcome of the election in the state.
In Wisconsin, an official said poorly trained observers for the Trump campaign were slowing a partial recount by challenging every ballot and raising other objections.
"Observers are disruptive. They are asking question after question, telling the tablulators to stop, stop what they're doing and that is out of line, that's not acceptable," Milwaukee County Clerk George Christianson told reporters.
A manual recount and audit in Georgia confirmed Biden on Friday as the winner in the southern state, the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in nearly three decades.
The Trump campaign has two business days to request a recount in Georgia. Trump's legal team has also said it plans a lawsuit in the state, but has not provided specifics.
Trump's accusations have continued to inflame his hard-core Republican base.
Hundreds of supporters gathered at the statehouse in Atlanta on Saturday, with video posted online showing speakers denouncing the media for calling Biden the election winner, as well as state Republican leaders for certifying the results.
Police in riot gear were deployed to separate them from counterprotesters who gathered nearby.
The General Services Administration, run by a Trump appointee, has not recognised Biden's victory, preventing his team from gaining access to government office space and funding normally provided to an incoming administration ahead of Inauguration Day on Jan 20.
Critics say the delay and Trump's refusal to concede have serious implications for national security and the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 255,000 Americans.
BEIJING: Leaders of the 20 biggest economies on Saturday (Nov 21) vowed to ensure a fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests around the world and do what was needed to support poorer countries struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
"We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people, consistent with members’ commitments to incentivise innovation," the leaders said in a draft G20 communique seen by Reuters. "We recognise the role of extensive immunization as a global public good."
The twin crises of the pandemic and an uneven, uncertain global recovery dominated the first day of a two-day summit under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia, which hands off the rotating presidency of the G20 to Italy next month.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has thrown the global economy into a deep recession this year, and efforts needed to underpin an economic rebound in 2021, were at the top of the agenda.
"We must work to create the conditions for affordable and equitable access to these tools for all peoples," Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz said in his opening remarks.
G20 leaders are concerned that the pandemic might further deepen global divisions between the rich and the poor.
"We need to avoid at all costs a scenario of a two-speed world where only the richer can protect themselves against the virus and restart normal lives," French President Emmanuel Macron told the summit.
To do that, the European Union urged G20 leaders quickly to put more money into a global project for vaccines, tests and therapeutics - called Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator - and its COVAX facility to distribute vaccines.
"At the G20 Summit I called for US$4.5 billion to be invested in ACT Accelerator by the end of 2020, for procurement & delivery of COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines everywhere," European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.
"We need to show global solidarity," she said.
Germany was contributing more than 500 million euros (US$592.65 million) to the effort, Chancellor Angela Merkel told the G20, urging other countries to do their part, according to a text of her remarks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to provide Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to other countries and said Moscow was also preparing a second and third vaccine.
China, where the pandemic originated a year ago, also offered to cooperate on vaccines. China has five home-grown candidates for a vaccine undergoing the last phase of trials.
"China is willing to strengthen cooperation with other countries in the research and development, production, and distribution of vaccines," President Xi Jinping told the G20 Summit.
"We will ... offer help and support to other developing countries, and work hard to make vaccines a public good that citizens of all countries can use and can afford," he said.
US President Donald Trump, who lost the US presidential election but has refused to concede to former Vice President Joe Biden, addressed G20 leaders briefly before going golfing. He discussed the need to work together to restore economic growth, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a summary released late on Saturday.
She made no mention of any US pledge to support the global vaccine distribution effort. One European source said Trump's remarks were focused on what he described as an unprecedented US recovery and the US drive to develop its own vaccines.
To prepare for future outbreaks, the EU is proposing a treaty on pandemics. "An international treaty would help us respond more quickly and in a more coordinated manner," European Council President Charles Michel told the G20.
While the global economy is recovering from the depths of the crisis, momentum is slowing in countries with resurgent infection rates and the pandemic is likely to leave deep scars, the International Monetary Fund said in a report for the summit.
Especially vulnerable are poor and highly indebted countries, which are "on the precipice of financial ruin and escalating poverty, hunger and untold suffering", United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.
To address this, the G20 will endorse a plan to extend a freeze in debt service payments by the poorest countries to mid-2021 and endorse a common approach for dealing with debt problems beyond that, the draft communique said.
World Bank President David Malpass warned the G20 that failing to provide more permanent debt relief to some countries now could lead to increased poverty and a repeat of the disorderly defaults of the 1980s.
The G20 debt relief initiative has helped 46 countries defer US$5.7 billion in debt service payments, but that is far short of the 73 countries that were eligible, and promised savings of around US$12 billion. Private sector participation is seen as critical to ensuring broader use of the initiative.
Debt relief for Africa will be an important theme of the Italian presidency of the G20 in 2021.
WASHINGTON: Families of imprisoned Saudis appealed on Friday (Nov 20) for the world to speak up as the kingdom hosts the Group of 20 summit, saying that challenging the kingdom's international reputation was crucial to winning their freedom.
As leaders of the world's largest economies prepared for talks Saturday that have gone virtual due to the Covid-19 pandemic, activists staged a "counter-summit" in hopes of throwing a spotlight on the ultra-conservative kingdom's human rights record.
PEN America, the literary group that defends free expression, called the online forum amid continued outrage over the 2018 murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, who was strangled and dismembered inside Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate.
"All of our relatives are in danger. They are facing the threat of what Jamal Khashoggi has seen on a daily basis," said Areej al-Sadhan, who says her brother, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, was picked by up Saudi secret police in March 2018.
"Your voices are going to help keep them safe," she said.
Abdulrahman al-Sadhan was seized in the Riyadh office of the Red Crescent humanitarian group, where he worked, after he voiced opinions on human rights and social justice on an anonymous Twitter account, according to the family.
Areej al-Sadhan, who lives in California, says she has faced shadowy threats since speaking about her brother, including a warning she was going to be "thrown into the sewer system."
One of the most prominent Saudis in custody is 31-year-old Loujain al-Hathloul, a key figure in the campaign to allow Saudi women to drive who was arrested in May 2018 weeks before the kingdom lifted its ban on female drivers.
She has been on a hunger strike since Oct 26 when her parents visited her and found her to be "very weak and hopeless," said her sister, Lina al-Hathoul.
"We should not underestimate the power we have with our voices," Lina, who has lived in Europe for several years, told the counter-summit.
"Even one word asking about political prisoners and prisoners of conscience - saying their names, making sure they're not forgotten - really is something that could save them."
Jailed Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who has campaigned for women's right to drive, appears in an undated picture on her Facebook page AFP/-
CHANGE EXPECTED UNDER BIDEN
Outgoing US President Donald Trump has aligned himself closely with Saudi Arabia, hailing its purchases of US weapons and hostility toward US adversary Iran.
Trump said of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that he "saved his ass" after a US Senate resolution, which followed a CIA briefing, found the powerful young royal responsible for Khashoggi's killing.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, told the counter-summit that he expected President-elect Joe Biden to address human rights in Saudi Arabia and the kingdom's support for a brand of Islam that "forms the building blocks of global extremist movements."
"It is past time for us to recognize that Saudi Arabia is a deeply imperfect ally and that our priorities in this relationship have been long skewed in a way that, I argue, is not to the advantage of the United States in the long run," Murphy said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets in February 2020 with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who ha cultivated close relations with US President Donald Trump AFP/ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers had urged the Trump administration to boycott the G20, seeing it as part of efforts for Saudi Arabia to rebrand itself without meaningful reforms.
Instead, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit in person hours after the virtual summit.
Safa al-Ahmad, acting director of the Saudi rights group ALQST, said the kingdom's outreach efforts, such as inviting Western musicians, have been geared entirely at improving its public image abroad without reform at home.
"There is a limit to the hypocrisy and the gaslighting of the Saudi government. The reality is very, very different from what the government continues to claim."
KUALA LUMPUR: US President Donald Trump attended an online Asia-Pacific summit Friday (Nov 20) even as he challenged his election defeat, while China's Xi Jinping used the forum to counter American protectionism.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering, held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, brings together leaders from 21 Pacific Rim economies, accounting for about 60 per cent of global GDP.
China - which came into the summit days after scoring a huge trade pact victory - has become the main driving force behind the grouping after the United States began withdrawing from multilateral bodies during Trump's presidency.
But Trump made the surprise decision to take part in this year's event, after not participating at APEC since 2017, and appeared on Friday alongside other leaders via video link.
All of the leaders except one had an official APEC backdrop on their screens, which was blue and featured the enormous, green-domed Malaysian prime minister's office.
The exception was Trump, who appeared with a beige background under the US presidential seal.
A source involved in arranging the summit said Trump refused to use the official backdrop.
He delivered a speech to fellow leaders during the two-hour event, but it was not open to the media.
Analysts said Trump likely decided to appear at APEC this year to present himself as presidential as he pursues legal challenges against election winner Joe Biden.
His appearance was all the more striking as the United States broke with tradition by failing to send a representative to deliver a public speech at the forum ahead of Friday's official summit.
Trump's turn away from multilateral groupings like APEC has left the floor open for China to write the Asia-Pacific's rules of commerce, and Xi used his speech at Friday's summit to launch a strident defence of free trade.
"It is important that the Asia-Pacific should remain the bellwether in safeguarding peace and stability, upholding multilateralism, and fostering an open world economy," he said, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
"Free and open trade and investment cannot be achieved overnight."
His remarks will raise eyebrows however in capitals where Beijing has been accused of blocking trade amid diplomatic rows, and using its enormous economy as a bargaining chip to strongarm weaker rivals.
Xi also said the China would also consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership - a giant regional free trade pact that had once been championed by the United States under Barack Obama but then abandoned by Trump.
This year's APEC gathering came a week after China and 14 other Asia-Pacific countries signed another free trade pact, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which will be the world's biggest.
The deal, which excludes the US, has been viewed as a major coup for China and further evidence that Beijing is setting the agenda for global commerce as Washington retreats.
Signatories hope RCEP will help their virus-hit economies on the road to recovery, and many leaders at the APEC forum warned against turning inwards in response to the pandemic.
"We need to trade and invest our way out of the current economic downturn," Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in his opening remarks at Friday's summit.
"We must come together and work constructively towards navigating the region along a path of robust, inclusive and sustainable economic recovery and growth."
At the end of the summit, the leaders released a joint declaration that pledged their determination to work together to recover from the pandemic.
Even agreeing a statement was progress compared with the leaders' previous summit in 2018, when they were unable to hammer out a joint communique due to escalating tensions between the US and China on trade.
