10 things you need to know today: November 11, 2020

1. Biden calls Trump refusal to concede an 'embarrassment'

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday vowed to "get right to work," and dismissed President Trump's refusal to concede defeat in last week's election as "inconsequential." He also said Trump's actions were an "embarrassment" to the United States. Trump is making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, and the Trump administration is blocking Biden from receiving intelligence briefings and federal funding traditionally provided to incoming presidents. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 80 percent of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, recognized that Biden won the Nov. 3 election once nearly every media outlet called the race for the former vice president. The race remained too close to call in Arizona and Georgia, but Biden leads in both and has enough electoral votes to win without them.

The Associated Press Reuters

2. 2 conservative justices appear to oppose striking down health law

Two conservative Supreme Court justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh — on Tuesday expressed skepticism about Republican-run states' calls to strike down the Affordable Care Act. Republican state attorneys general argued that the whole law should be invalidated since Congress has eliminated the individual mandate to acquire insurance that was at the heart of the law. Kavanaugh said he "tend[s] to agree" the mandate could simply be removed and the law allowed to stand, and called it "fairly clear" that precedent allowed for only cutting out the mandate. Roberts said some lawmakers might have hoped the high court would strike down the whole law, but that dismantling the law is not the high court's "job." If Roberts and Kavanaugh side with the court's three liberal justices, the health-care law will survive the challenge.

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Reuters

3. COVID-19 hospitalizations hit record level

New U.S. coronavirus cases continued to rise on Tuesday, surpassing 139,000 for the first time as COVID-19 hospitalizations in the country rose to a record high 61,964. The number of people hospitalized rose above the previous high of 59,940, set on April 15, after the total more than doubled since September. Hospitalizations quickly fell after peaking in April, but public health experts do not expect the numbers to fall this time, as winter approaches and new cases continue to rise. The U.S. has confirmed more than 100,000 cases every day for a week, pushing the seven-day average to more than 123,000. More than 1,440 coronavirus deaths were reported in the U.S. on Tuesday, lifting the nation's death toll to nearly 240,000.

The New York Times

4. McConnell, Schumer earn another term as Senate party leaders

Republicans and Democrats re-elected their leaders for the next Senate on Tuesday, although it remained unclear whether Republican Mitch McConnell (Ky.) or Democrat Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) would serve as majority leader. That question won't be settled until January, when Georgia's two incumbent senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, face runoffs against their Democratic rivals, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. McConnell was re-elected as the party's Senate leader in a unanimous vote a week after winning a seventh term. Schumer and the rest of the Democrats' leadership team were re-elected by acclimation to stay in their posts. "We're ready to get going, even though there's some suspense about whether we'll be in the majority or not," McConnell said.

The Washington Post

5. Pompeo says transition will be 'smooth' ... to 2nd Trump administration

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, asked about Trump administration resistance to cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden's transition team, suggested that Biden would not be taking office at all. "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration," Pompeo said in a news conference. Pressed on that question, Pompeo made it clear that he did not believe that the election had been settled yet, but he said the winner will be sworn in next January on schedule. Biden won the popular vote by nearly 5 million votes with nearly all ballots counted, and has been projected the winner of more than enough electoral votes to win. Critics called Pompeo's remarks reckless. Former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes said U.S. diplomats criticize remarks like Pompeo's "from foreign officials whose party lost elections."

Politico Ben Rhodes

6. Vatican report says Pope John Paul II knew about McCarrick sexual abuse

A Vatican internal report found that the late Pope John Paul II rejected warnings of sexual misconduct allegations against Theodore McCarrick, an American prelate who was elevated to the Catholic Church's highest ranks before being defrocked in disgrace two decades later. The report detailed how McCarrick rose to power despite rumors and even written evidence of his sexual misconduct and abuse of seminarians, priests, and teen boys. While placing much of the blame on John Paul II, the investigation also says that Pope Benedict XVI tried to keep the McCarrick scandal quiet, and that Pope Francis assumed his predecessors had handled the case correctly. The church has been confronting the fallout from its broader sexual abuse crisis for years, but the report marked a new level of openness about the coverup of abusive priests' crimes.

The Washington Post

7. Democratic challenger concedes N.C. Senate race

Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham conceded the North Carolina Senate race on Tuesday, a week after the vote. Cunningham said in a statement that he called to congratulate incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on his re-election, effectively ending the tight contest. The state is still counting votes, but Cunningham has no realistic chance of erasing Tillis' narrow lead. Decision Desk HQ called the race for Tillis earlier in the day, although many news outlets had yet to project a winner. Tillis' victory gives the GOP 49 Senate seats. The party will likely reach 50 seats when Alaska finishes tallying ballots. That means the two January runoffs in Georgia, as expected, will determine which party controls the upper chamber in the next Congress.

The Associated Press

8. Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers resign after 4 expelled

Pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong resigned en masse on Wednesday to protest the expulsion of four of their colleagues, effectively leaving Hong Kong's legislature without political opposition for the first time since Britain handed over control of the territory to China in 1997. The four sitting pro-democracy lawmakers — who included the accountant Kenneth Leung and liberal, pro-democratic party leader Alvin Yeung — were disqualified under a directive from Beijing, which has been cracking down on opposition in the former British colony. The directive bypassed Hong Kong's court and political system in the latest in a series of challenges to its autonomy, despite longstanding promises to let the city control its own affairs until 2047.

CNN The Washington Post

9. Russia says coronavirus vaccine 92 percent effective

Russia's sovereign wealth fund said Wednesday that interim trial results indicated that the country's Sputnik V vaccine is 92 percent effective at protecting against COVID-19. Russia registered the vaccine candidate for public use in August, making it the first vaccine in the world to receive such approval. But the large-scale trial didn't start until September. The initial results came days after Pfizer and BioNTech reported that their vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective in its trials. Russia's interim results were based on data from the first 16,000 participants to receive both required doses of the vaccine. "We are showing, based on the data, that we have a very effective vaccine," said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is backing and marketing the vaccine.

Reuters

10. Pennsylvania postal worker recants claim of backdated late ballots

Pennsylvania postal worker Richard Hopkins has recanted his claim that the Erie, Pennsylvania, postmaster told workers to backdate mail-in ballots that arrived after election day, according to House Democrats. Republicans had cited Hopkins' allegations as a reason for challenging President-elect Joe Biden's win in the crucial swing state. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) touted Hopkins' claims in a letter to the Justice Department urging an investigation. Attorney General William Barr subsequently told prosecutors to investigate credible allegations of voting fraud. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee announced that Hopkins signed an affidavit recanting his claims when questioned by a U.S. Postal Service inspector general. The New York Times reported that it had contacted election officials in every state, and none found evidence of fraud that affected election results.

The Hill The New York Times