LIMA, Peru (AP) - Peru’s president faced a second impeachment vote in less than two months Monday over new accusations of corruption in the latest jolt to one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Opposition lawmakers contend Martín Vizcarra took over $630,000 in bribes in exchange for ...

Peru’s president faced a second impeachment vote in less than two months Monday over new accusations of corruption in the latest jolt to one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Opposition lawmakers contend Martín Vizcarra took over $630,000 in bribes in exchange for authorizing two construction contracts while governor of Moquegua, a province in southern Peru with a population of about 180,000. The allegations are being investigated by the chief prosecutor’s office but Vizcarra has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.

The Trump campaign announced on Sunday that Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) will oversee the recount in Georgia.President-elect Joe Biden leads President Trump in Georgia by about 10,000 votes. There are still some votes left to count, and as of now the race is considered too close to call, although Biden does not need the state's 16 electoral votes to win the presidency. In Georgia, the losing candidate can request a recount if the margin of victory is within 0.5 percent.Without providing any evidence, a Trump campaign spokesman alleged there was "a lack of transparency in the tabulation process, especially given the reports of irregularities and improper ballot harvesting in Georgia." Collins also released a statement, saying that Republicans "stand by the ideal that every eligible voter should be able to vote legally and have it be counted."On Tuesday, Collins lost a special election to fill one of Georgia's open Senate seats. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, advanced to the runoff, set for Jan. 5. Collins has been one of Trump's staunchest allies in Congress, defending him during his impeachment trial.More stories from theweek.com Does it matter if Donald Trump never concedes? Trump will reportedly start reading obituaries of dead people who almost certainly didn't vote Trump's flurry of 'campaign defense fund' emails have fine print about retiring Trump's campaign debt

* Utah senator and 2012 candidate says GOP won policy battle * US election: Joe Biden begins transition work – live coverageDonald Trump, stewing at the White House, reportedly approached by Jared Kushner about conceding the election but as yet unmoved, is “the 900lb gorilla when it comes to the Republican party”, Utah senator and 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney said on Sunday.The presidential election was called for Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, on Saturday, when Pennsylvania moved into his electoral college column four days after the vote.Trump, who responded with defiance – and by playing golf – “will have an enormous impact on our party going forward”, Romney told NBC’s Meet the Press.“I believe the great majority of people who voted for Donald Trump want to make sure that his principles and his policies are pursued. So yeah, he’s not disappearing by any means. He’s the 900lb gorilla when it comes to the Republican party.”Romney is a relative moderate in Trump’s party and a relatively independent voice – he was the only Republican senator to vote for impeachment but he also voted to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court with unprecedented and many say unseemly haste.“The presidential race,” he said on Sunday, considering Republican victories in congressional, state and local elections, “was more a matter of a referendum on a person. And that when it came to policy, we did pretty well.”In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union, Romney elaborated, claiming: “Republicans overall did better than Democrats overall in this election. So it comes down to a question about what does America want in terms of policy.“It’s pretty clear they don’t want the Green New Deal,” he said, starting to tick off progressive policy goals not necessarily shared by Biden or offered on his platform.“Pretty clear they don’t want Medicare for All, don’t want higher taxes, don’t want to get rid of oil and gas and coal. The American people are more conservative than they are progressive, so to speak, and any argument to the contrary I think is going to be met with a lot of resistance from the American people, and from members of Congress.”Regardless of such political fights to come, Trump is still claiming without evidence that widespread voter fraud meant his election defeat was rigged.Asked on NBC what he would like to see the president do differently, Romney said: “We’re not going to change President Trump or his nature in the waning days of the presidency. And so I don’t think I’m going to be giving him advice as to what to do.“Clearly, the people in the past, like myself, who lost elections, have gone on in a way that said, ‘Look, I know the eyes of the world are on us. The eyes of our own people are on the institutions that we have. The eyes of history are on us.’“In a setting like this, we want to preserve something which is far more important than our self or even our party. And that is preserve the cause of freedom and democracy here and around the world.“But the president’s going to do what he has traditionally done, what he’s doing now … and by the way, he has every right to call for recounts. Because we’re talking about a margin of 10,000 votes here, or less in some cases [in fact just Georgia]. And so a recount could change the outcome. He wants to look at irregularities, pursue that in the court.“But if, as expected, those things don’t change the outcome, why, he will accept the inevitable.”NBC host Chuck Todd did goad Romney into slightly harsher words about Trump’s behaviour.“I think it’s fine to pursue every legal avenue that one has,” Romney said. “But I think one has to be careful in the choice of words. I think when you say that the election was corrupt or stolen or rigged, that that’s unfortunately rhetoric that gets picked up by authoritarians around the world.“And I think it also discourages confidence in our democratic process here at home. And with a battle going on right now between authoritarianism and freedom, why, I think it’s very important that we not use language which can encourage a course in history which would be very, very unfortunate.”

Democrat-turned Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who last year abruptly switched parties and pledged his "undying support" to President Donald Trump, has won reelection, CNN projects, defeating Democrat Amy Kennedy, a former schoolteacher and a member by marriage of the Kennedy dynasty.

Emboldened by the president’s election defeat, some Republican leaders are speaking out as others vie for the Trumpist mantle * US election 2020 live: follow the latest news * Trump v Biden – full resultsFor four years he commanded their unflinching loyalty. They protected him from impeachment, tacitly approved as children at the border were prised from their parents and placed in cages, and looked the other way as peacefully protesting Americans were gassed for a photo opportunity.Now, in the death throes of Donald Trump’s presidency, as the president refuses to concede the election to Joe Biden, Republicans who once stood shoulder to shoulder with the man who reshaped their political party to his will are scrambling to distance themselves from his unfounded claims that the election is being stolen from him.“Outrageous, uncalled for and a terrible mistake,” the Maryland governor, Larry Hogan, said of Trump’s erratic pursuit of his false allegations; “very disturbing,” according to the Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey; and “reckless” in the words of the former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.This breaking of ranks by growing numbers of senators, congressmen, governors and other elected officials – coming only after Trump’s cause appeared lost – heralds a looming battle for the future direction of the Republican party with its figurehead gone from the stage.Those now openly critical after years of silence must weigh up the consequences of speaking out while there remain loyalists inside the party determined to carry the banner of Trumpism into the 2024 election and beyond. That faction includes Republican senators such as Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton, and the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, a staunch Trump ally who has urged the president to “fight on, exhaust all options” in his futile effort to prove widespread election fraud.“Trumpism will remain because he is such a wildly popular figure among their base. But, you know, it’s always been pragmatic for many Republicans,” said Jason Stanley, professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of the bestseller How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them.“There’s some portion of the Republican party supporting him mainly because he’s Trump, and he’s owning the libs and saying racist things. And then another group is supporting him because he’s pushing through the hardest-right policies.“I expect the Republican party will prioritise whatever mechanism they need to dominate the courts, to keep suppressing the vote, to make sure that they can, as a minority party, remain in control of the levers of government.”Stanley questioned the timing of those who appear to be breaking free from Trump by speaking out now.“The Republican party has been doing this anti-democratic thing since well before Trump,” he said.“They’ve been acting like the Democrats are not legitimate, and they have no responsibility to co-govern with the Democrats and their sole purpose is to get the Democrats out and rule as a minority party.“I mean, we’ve had four years of this. When people do what is minimally expected that doesn’t mean you should be filled with praise for them … Norms have been so broken that we’re asking whether we should praise people when the president is obviously trying to rig and steal the election.”It remains to be seen if more moderate senior Republicans who have been critical of Trump, such as Mitt Romney, senator for Utah, will hold sway when the party plots its course for the Biden presidency.Romney released a sternly worded statement on Friday that said Trump’s assertions the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen were wrong. “[It] damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions,” he wrote.Other Republican figures are still on board the Trump train, even as it jumps the rails, including the fiercely loyal DeSantis, Cruz, Cotton, the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham and apologists such as Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump’s personal lawyer widely ridiculed for his appearance in the recent Borat movie.All have backed the president’s false claims of malfeasance publicly, overlooking the fact they were made without evidence.“Those are the most dangerous politicians we have. They have placed zero value on democracy,” Stanley, the Yale professor, said.“Some of them, like Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, you know, might be more dangerous in various respects than Trump.”

What's the strategy? Trump's scattershot legal offensive rolls on. Election lawsuits may mount even as some have already been dismissed.