5 Stories to Watch Next Week | November 14, 2020

5 Stories to Watch Next Week Trump Campaign Challenges Validity of Hundreds of Thousands of Ballots in Pennsylvania In a lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania this week, the Trump campaign alleged that Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar and the election boards of seven counties had treated mail-in ballots with a lower degree of transparency than in-person votes. The complaint filed by the campaign alleged that several counties, including Philadelphia and Allegheny, had not followed a transparent process in the receipt, review, opening, and tabulation of over 600,000 ballots. The complaint also stated that Republican poll-watchers were not granted sufficient access to the vote counting process. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has dismissed these claims as meritless, saying they lack evidence. Watch next week to find out whether the district court issues an order requiring further scrutiny of the ballots in question or whether the court lets the existing vote tally stand. Also, look to find out how this case affects pending Supreme Court litigation on mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania received after Election Day. Georgia Secretary of State Announces Hand Recount of Presidential Vote As Joe Biden continues to lead President Trump by a narrow margin in Georgia, the state’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, announced a full hand recount and audit of votes cast in the presidential contest. Ballots counted by hand will be compared to results produced by vote-tallying equipment. Raffensperger has come under fire since Election Day as both Republican Senate candidates in the state, Sens. David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler, called for his resignation over allegations of election mismanagement. Raffensperger said that he aimed to finish the recount close to Nov. 20. Watch next week to see whether the recount affects existing vote tallies in the state significantly. Also look to find out if either presidential campaign preempts the eventual certification of the election by filing additional lawsuits. Senate Judiciary Committee to Hold Hearing on Censorship, Suppression in 2020 Election The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), has scheduled a hearing focused on censorship and suppression in the 2020 election. The hearing is set to take place on Tuesday. The issue of election interference came to the forefront when social media platforms Facebook and Twitter restricted the sharing of a New York Post story detailing Hunter Biden’s dealings abroad. Many Senate Republicans have floated the idea of revising existing protections awarded to social media companies as a means to reduce the censorship of conservatives. Watch to find out if Republicans on the committee lay out a concrete plan to eliminate certain legal protections for social media giants. Also watch to find out how members of the committee link the social media censorship to the results of the recently concluded presidential election. Israel to Send First Official Delegation to Sudan Israel reportedly plans to send its first official delegation to Sudan next week in order to conduct talks on the normalization agreement announced last month. On Oct. 23, President Trump announced that Israel and Sudan were establishing diplomatic relations and would coordinate in a range of areas such as agriculture, trade, aviation, and migration. Sudan was one of three Arab states which normalized relations with Israel through US-brokered deals, along with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. One of the salient topics that is likely to be discussed next week is the fate of some 6,000 Sudanese asylum seekers in Israel, constituting roughly 20 percent of all African migrants currently in Israel. Watch next week to see whether the Israeli representatives make any announcements regarding the legal status of these asylum seekers. Also look to find out how other policy actions taken by Israel and Sudan affect Middle Eastern politics. Brexit Talks Set to Miss Deadline but Continue Even though negotiators representing both the United Kingdom and the European Union were not able to conclude an agreement by this weekend’s informal deadline, sources within the negotiations said that there was enough progress to continue next week. Little time remains to strike an agreement, especially as the European Union wishes to scrutinize the text of any draft agreement in its committees in its last plenary session beginning on Dec. 14. With the hard deadline of Dec. 31 to finalize any agreement looming large in the background, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen conceded that large differences still needed to be reconciled on subjects such as access to British fisheries and a level regulatory framework for businesses for any agreement to be concluded. Watch next week to see whether negotiators make any substantial headway toward a final agreement or whether both parties continue to move toward a potentially disruptive no-deal Brexit. Also look to find out what impact, if any, the contested results of the American presidential elections have on negotiations. Newt's Latest Podcasts: Order Newt's Latest Book: https://www.gingrich360.com/trump-and-the-american-future

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