Biden: Trump 'failed' to shore up nation's cybersecurity

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday assailed the Trump administration for failing to fortify the nation's cyber defenses, and called on President Donald Trump to publicly identify the perpetrator of a massive breach of U.S. government agencies — a hack some of Trump's top allies have blamed on Russia.

Biden, who is being briefed on high-level intelligence in preparation for taking office next month, said planning for the hack began as early as 2019. Several federal agencies, including the Treasury Department, have said they were targeted.

“There’s still so much we don’t know,” Biden said during a news conference in Wilmington, Delaware. “But we know this much: This attack constitutes a grave risk to our national security. It was carefully planned and carefully orchestrated.”

The U.S. government has not made a formal assessment of who was behind the attack, but both Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr have said all signs point to Russia. But Trump, who has long sidestepped blaming Moscow for its provocations, has not followed suit and has instead suggested — without evidence — that China may have carried out the hack.

The breach of the Treasury Department began in July, but experts believe the overall hacking operation began months earlier when malicious code was slipped into updates to popular software that monitors computer networks of businesses and governments.

___

US deaths in 2020 top 3 million, by far most ever counted

NEW YORK (AP) — This is the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time — due mainly to the coronavirus pandemic.

Final mortality data for this year will not be available for months. But preliminary numbers suggest that the United States is on track to see more than 3.2 million deaths this year, or at least 400,000 more than in 2019.

U.S. deaths increase most years, so some annual rise in fatalities is expected. But the 2020 numbers amount to a jump of about 15%, and could go higher once all the deaths from this month are counted.

That would mark the largest single-year percentage leap since 1918, when tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers died in World War I and hundreds of thousands of Americans died in a flu pandemic. Deaths rose 46% that year, compared with 1917.

COVID-19 has killed more than 318,000 Americans and counting. Before it came along, there was reason to be hopeful about U.S. death trends.

___

Britain finds itself isolated over new version of the virus

LONDON (AP) — Over 2,800 stranded truck drivers hoped to get the green light Tuesday to leave Britain and get back home for Christmas as the country found itself increasingly isolated and its trade bottled up, cut off by neighbors afraid of a new version of the coronavirus circulating in England.

More than 630 trucks snaked along a major highway in southeast England near the English Channel ports, while almost 2,200 others crowded into an unused airport on Day 2 of an ordeal that began when dozens of nations banned flights from the U.K. and France barred entry to its trucks.

Britain's Transport Department said an agreement had been reached with France to reopen the border for “accompanied freight services and some passenger services.” Rail, sea and air traffic was set to resume Wednesday morning.

Truck drivers will be required to show a negative virus test, though details for cargo shipments remained to be finalized, and both governments urged truckers to stay away from the ports until the new rules are settled.

The precautions that France and others imposed were prompted by a new variant of the virus that is believed to be more contagious, though experts say it does not appear to be more deadly or vaccine-resistant. A similar one has emerged in South Africa.

___

Feds sue Walmart over role in opioid crisis

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department sued Walmart on Tuesday, accusing it of fueling the nation’s opioid crisis by pressuring its pharmacies to fill even potentially suspicious prescriptions for the powerful painkillers.

The civil complaint filed points to the role Walmart’s pharmacies may have played in the crisis by filling opioid prescriptions and Walmart's own responsibility for the allegedly illegal distribution of controlled substances to the pharmacies at the height of the opioid crisis. Walmart operates more than 5,000 pharmacies in its stores around the country.

The Justice Department alleges Walmart violated federal law by selling thousands of prescriptions for controlled substances that its pharmacists “knew were invalid,” said Jeffrey Clark, the acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s civil division.

Federal law required Walmart to spot suspicious orders for controlled substances and report those to the Drug Enforcement Administration, but prosecutors charge the company didn’t do that.

“Walmart knew that its distribution centers were using an inadequate system for detecting and reporting suspicious orders,” said Jason Dunn, the U.S. attorney in Colorado. “As a result of this inadequate system, for years Walmart reported virtually no suspicious orders at all. In other words, Walmart’s pharmacies ordered opioids in a way that went essentially unmonitored and unregulated.”

___

Israel heads to new elections as government collapses

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s divided government collapsed early Wednesday, triggering the country’s fourth election in under two years and bringing an unprecedented threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's lengthy grip on power.

Netanyahu, who is used to labeling his opponents as weak leftists, finds himself confronted by a trio of disgruntled former aides who share his hard-line ideology, led by a popular lawmaker who recently broke away from the prime minister's Likud party. Whether Netanyahu can fend off these challengers or not, the country is almost certain to be led by a right-wing politician opposed to concessions to the Palestinians, complicating hopes of the incoming Biden administration to restart peace talks.

The prospects of Israel’s center-left bloc appear worse than in previous contests because its leader, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, entered into the ill-fated alliance with Netanyahu. Gantz has lost the support of much of his disappointed base, and the bloc has been left leaderless.

Netanyahu and Gantz formed their coalition last May after battling to a stalemate in three consecutive elections. They said they were putting aside their personal rivalry to form an “emergency” government focused on guiding the country through the health and economic crises caused by the pandemic. Under the deal, Gantz assumed the new role of “alternate prime minister” and was assured he would trade places with Netanyahu next November in a rotation agreement halfway through their term.

The immediate cause of the collapse was their failure to pass a budget by the midnight Tuesday deadline. That caused the parliament to automatically dissolve and set new elections for late March.

___

Newsom taps California election chief Padilla for US Senate

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom selected Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Tuesday as the state's next U.S. senator, a historic pick that sends a Latino to the Senate for the first time in the state's history.

While Padilla had been the favorite, a video released by Newsom's office shows him getting emotional after Newsom offered him the job, reflecting on the hard work of his parents, who came to the United States from Mexico and worked as a cook and a housekeeper.

“It's a hell of an important perspective to bring to Washington," he told Newsom.

Padilla, 47, was appointed to fill out the remainder of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' term. She plans to step down from the seat in January ahead of Inauguration Day, on Jan. 20. Padilla will need to run for a full term in 2022. The appointment gives him an advantage, but he's still likely to face challengers; California's top-two primary system allows two Democrats to face off in a general election.

“Through his tenacity, integrity, smarts and grit, California is gaining a tested fighter in their corner who will be a fierce ally in D.C., lifting up our state’s values and making sure we secure the critical resources to emerge stronger from this pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement.

___

In South Africa, child homicides show violence 'entrenched'

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — At night, Amanda Zitho worries her little boy is shivering and cold in his coffin and yearns to take him a blanket. She knows Wandi’s dead and gone and it’s senseless, but that doesn’t stop the ache.

Wandi was 5 when he was killed in April, allegedly strangled with a rope by a Johannesburg neighbor — another dead child in a land where there are too many.

According to official figures, around 1,000 children are murdered every year in South Africa, nearly three a day. But that statistic, horrific as it is, may be an undercount.

Shanaaz Mathews thinks many more children are victims of homicides that are not investigated properly, not prosecuted or completely missed by authorities. The official figures are “just the tip of the iceberg,” said Mathews, the director of the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town and probably the country’s leading expert on child homicides.

In a country where more than 50 people are murdered every day, children are not special and are not spared.

___

VIRUS TODAY: Deaths to set record, consumer confidence down

Here's what's happening Tuesday with the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.:

THREE THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

—Largely because of the pandemic, this is shaping up as the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths expected to exceed 3 million for the first time. The 2020 death rate could be at least 15% higher than last year's, once December totals are tallied. Life expectancy for 2020 could drop as much as three full years, said Robert Anderson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

—The coronavirus pandemic is dragging down U.S. consumer confidence during the crucial holiday season, which could make or break a number of retailers, airlines, restaurants and other sectors. The December reading of 88.6 released Tuesday by the Conference Board is a sharp decline from last month, which was revised downward to 92.9, and it is far worse than economists had expected.

—The governor of North Dakota is allowing bars and restaurants to return to regular hours of operation with a drop in active COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum's executive order requires the establishments to follow other state and local rules, including limiting capacity and continuing precautions such as social distancing and mask wearing.

___

As small businesses await new US aid, it's too late for some

NEW YORK (AP) — Clay Reynolds is starting to make peace with a gut-wrenching reality: He may have to once again close his business, Arrichion Hot Yoga and Circuit Training.

The $900 billion pandemic relief package that Congress has just approved contains billions in aid directed specifically at struggling small companies like Reynolds’. Arrichion received a loan last spring from the government’s earlier economic aid program. But Reynolds, a co-owner, needs another. Business was down 75% in the third quarter. The fourth quarter will likely be worse.

Like other independent fitness studios and gyms, his has lost many longtime members who feared working out alongside others indoors or don’t want to wear a mask while exercising. And after being forced to close during the spring, Reynolds worries that the surge in virus cases will bring new government restrictions.

“There’s a good chance this type of business will be shut down again in the next few weeks,” said Reynolds, whose studios are in North Carolina and Utah.

America’s entrepreneurs welcomed Congress’ long-delayed relief package, which provides $325 billion in aid to small companies and makes it easier for them to gain access to grants and loans under its renewed Paycheck Protection Program. But the rescue comes too late for tens of thousands of businesses that have already closed or may have to soon, a consequence of a pandemic that has kept away diners, shoppers and customers since early spring. The National Restaurant Association, for example, estimates that 110,000 U.S. restaurants — 17% — have shut down indefinitely or for good, doomed by restrictions on their hours or capacity and by Americans’ reluctance to eat out.

___

Perdue seeks payoff from Trump loyalty in Georgia runoff

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — In 2014, David Perdue introduced himself to Georgia voters as a corporate executive capable of bringing pragmatism to a Congress depicted in his first TV ad as a bunch of diaper-clad, crying babies.

“Help me change the childish behavior up there," he asked voters in his winning campaign for U.S. Senate.

Since then, the Republican who promised level-headed maturity in Washington has been swept up in the tornado of Donald Trump's White House. Perdue became one of the Senate's chief defenders of a president known for schoolyard insults and who still refuses to accept his own election defeat.

Now Perdue is at the center of one of the most intense Senate races in recent memory, fighting for reelection in a Jan. 5 runoff election that will determine which party controls the Senate. It's an unexpected role for a politician described even by close allies as someone who doesn't stir strong passions.

“He’s not flamboyant,” said Alec Poitevint, a Georgia businessman and GOP activist who serves as Perdue’s campaign chairman. “But one thing is, he’s consistent. He never changes.”