Beijing pledged to respond to the United States after the Donald Trump administration imposed new sanctions on 14 Chinese Communist Party officials.

The restrictions, which include travel bans, are linked to China’s ongoing crackdown on freedom in Hong Kong, where elected opposition politicians have been excluded.

Washington’s sanctions have targeted the vice-chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), the highest decision-making body in the Chinese legislature.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing would take “strict measures against the malicious actions of the United States to protect our sovereignty, our security and our development rights.”

It also urged Mr. Trump to withdraw the decision.

CNN and Politico reported that the Biden administration had appointed Lloyd Austin, a retired army general, to choose him as defense minister, Writes Josh Marcus.

If confirmed, Mr. Austin, who led US military operations in the Middle East under the Obama administration as head of US Central Command, would be the first black man to hold the position.

Mr. Austin also served as a senior commander in Iraq and was the Army’s first black deputy chief of staff, and the second highest-ranking officer in the service.

Donald Trump’s attorney, Sydney Powell, suffered two defeats in court in Michigan and Detroit as she tried to overturn the president’s election defeat.

A federal judge in Michigan ruled that the lawsuit brought by the conservative prosecutor was filled with “theories, speculations, and speculation” and dismissed it.

US District Judge Linda Parker ruled against the lawsuit, which asked the state to grant its electoral votes to Trump despite his loss there by about 155,000 votes.

The emergency room doctor who criticized Donald Trump for greeting supporters in a motorcade from the car while still ill with Covid-19 reportedly lost his shifts at Walter Reed Hospital.

CBS News You mentioned that James Phillips, a specialist in disaster medicine, is no longer on the hospital’s schedule, starting in January.

After Mr. Trump revealed his Secret Service bodyguards about the virus by asking them to drive, Dr. Phillips tweeted: “Everyone … in the car during that totally unnecessary presidential trip should now be quarantined for 14 years. Days. They might die … for the sake of the political theater. At Trump’s order to put their lives at risk on stage. This is crazy.

The tweet has since been deleted.

Donald Trump continued his attacks on officials in Georgia late into the night, angry at their refusal to take seriously his unfounded allegations of vote fraud.

Brian Kemp, the governor, Jeff Duncan, the deputy governor, and Brad Ravensberger, the foreign secretary, warned that “Georgia is watching.”

Trump also mocked Duncan as “stupid or corrupt” for his lack of support for electoral intrigues.

Georgia yesterday reasserted Joe Biden’s victory in the state after a recount confirmed the result.

The President tweeted a number of clips of TV programs whose hosts have supported him. He is also still claiming publicly that he won the election, which he did not.