Reuters US Domestic News Summary

Trump appears to acknowledge for first time that Biden could succeed him President Donald Trump insisted on Friday he would never put the United States into a coronavirus lockdown but said "time will tell" if another administration takes office in January and does so, the closest he has come to acknowledging that President-elect Joe Biden could succeed him.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. Environmental groups appeal Illinois order allowing Dakota pipeline expansion

Environmental groups are appealing a decision made last month by Illinois regulators to allow the expansion of the Dakota Access oil pipeline (DAPL), according to documents filed with the state on Friday. The Illinois Commerce Commission last month voted to approve an application to roughly double the capacity of Energy Transfer LP's 557,000 barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline after legal pushback by environmental groups delayed the vote by about a year. Biden aide says no U.S.-wide COVID lockdown planned as West Coast states advise against travel

President-elect Joe Biden's top coronavirus adviser said on Friday there were no plans for a wholesale nationwide lockdown to curb the surging COVID-19 pandemic, while three U.S. West Coast states jointly called for a halt in non-essential travel. The warning against unnecessary transit came as the daily increase in COVID-19 cases in the United States rose to a record of over 177,000 on Friday, the fourth straight day a new all-time high has been set, according to a Reuters tally of figures from U.S. public health agencies. Trump supporters head to the streets as he pushes false election claims

President Donald Trump's supporters will take to the streets on Saturday to back his unsubstantiated claims of election fraud as he pushes ahead with a flurry of longshot legal challenges to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Trump has made little headway in the courts with his lawsuits and for the first time on Friday he began to sound doubtful about his prospects, telling reporters "time will tell" who occupies the White House from Jan. 20. Prosecutors ask Barr to rescind memo on U.S. vote counting irregularities - Washington Post

U.S. prosecutors are asking Attorney General William Barr to rescind a memo issued earlier this week that instructed them to publicly investigate "substantial" allegations of vote counting irregularities, saying they have not seen the unusual activity, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The 16 assistant U.S. attorneys specially assigned to monitor the presidential election this month also said Barr's Monday memorandum had thrust prosecutors into partisan politics and that the policy change was not based in fact, according to the Post, which saw a copy of the letter. Before Biden inauguration, 70,000 more could die from COVID-19 in the U.S.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make controlling the coronavirus a top priority and is likely to push for mask wearing mandates and more fiscal stimulus to keep businesses and workers afloat. But in the two months until inauguration day on Jan. 20, skyrocketing infections could add more than 8 million more cases and 70,000 deaths, representing a potential 80% increase in infections and a 29% rise in deaths, according to Reuters calculations. U.S. states race to buy ultra cold vaccine freezers, fueling supply worries

U.S. states, cities, and hospitals are scrambling to buy ultra-cold freezers that can safely store Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine, ignoring advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to hold off. The push reveals a lack of infrastructure to support a super cold vaccine campaign, including equipment to store millions of doses of Pfizer's vaccine at temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94°F), significantly below the standard for vaccines of 2-8 degrees Celsius (36-46°F). Biden solidifies U.S. election win, Trump says 'time will tell' if he stays in power

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden solidified his election victory on Friday by winning the state of Georgia, and President Donald Trump said "time will tell" if another administration takes over soon, the closest he has come to acknowledging Biden could succeed him. Edison Research, which made the Georgia call, also projected that North Carolina, the only other battleground state with an outstanding vote count, would go to Trump, finalizing the electoral vote tally at 306 for Biden to 232 for Trump. Trump administration pushes to sell Alaska oil leases pre-Biden inauguration

The Trump Administration will take key steps to finalize a sale of oil drilling leases in the sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska just before Democrat Joseph Biden, who opposes drilling there, becomes president, a government spokeswoman said on Friday. The White House will be sending out a call for nominations in coming days, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Anchorage, Alaska. The call is a request to energy companies on what specific land areas should be offered for sale. Trump appears to acknowledge for first time that Biden could succeed him

President Donald Trump insisted on Friday he would never put the United States into a coronavirus lockdown but said "time will tell" if another administration takes office in January and does so, the closest he has come to acknowledging that President-elect Joe Biden could succeed him. In his first public remarks since Biden last Saturday was widely projected the winner, Trump said he expects a coronavirus vaccine to be available for the entire population as soon as April, amid a crush of new infections that has pushed daily case counts to record highs. U.S. judge again blocks Wyoming oil drilling over agency climate analysis

A federal court judge on Friday for the second time in two years blocked drilling on more than 300,000 acres in Wyoming because the government failed to adequately consider its impact on climate change. According to court papers, Judge Ralph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered that the environmental analyses for 282 oil and gas leases be sent back to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for additional study.

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