AL GORE

Economic bubbles come in all shapes, sizes and levels of insanity, but the Beanie Baby craze was easily one of the most absurd.

A massive selection of papers that belonged to liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is opening to researchers at the Library of Congress.

As 2024's campaign season begins, politicians are looking in the mirror and deciding whether they see an American president staring back.

Leading climate figures are urging the Biden administration to use the early departure of the Trump-appointed head of the World Bank as an opening to overhaul the powerful financial institution.

When President Joe Biden speaks about the “scourge” of gun violence, his go-to answer is to zero in on so-called assault weapons.

Things can look pretty bleak at international climate talks in Egypt.

Former Vice President Mike Pence blames Donald Trump for endangering his family “and all those serving at the Capitol” on Jan. 6, 2021, in his new memoir.

President Joe Biden says “it's more urgent than ever” to increase commitments to fighting global warming.

The planning and buildup of liquified and other natural gas would add 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (1.9 billion metric tons) a year to the air by 2030, according to a report released Thursday by Climate Action Tracker at international climate talks in Egypt.

President Joe Biden is declaring that his Democratic Party “had a strong night” in the midterm elections.

A detailed inventory of the top known sources of greenhouse gas emitters launched by former U_S_ Vice President Al Gore at the U_N_ climate summit in Egypt on Wednesday found that the top 14 individual polluters are all gas and oil fields and their associated facilities, despite their emissions being “significantly underreported.”.

Reparations to poor countries suffering the impacts of climate change and calls to drastically slash greenhouse emissions are two of the biggest storylines the first day of the U.N. climate summit, known as COP27.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told world leaders they must cooperate or perish, speaking Monday at the annual climate summit in Egypt.

Vice President Kamala Harris has been campaigning all across the country — not for herself but to boost Democratic candidates as her party struggles to keep control of Congress and statehouses.

Why has The Associated Press tallied votes and declared winners in U.S. elections since the middle of the 19th century.

Voters in some battleground states will be deciding ballot proposals this November that could reshape the way they vote in the 2024 presidential election.

Members of Congress have officially objected to the results in four of the last six presidential elections.

World Bank President David Malpass says he won’t resign after coming under criticism for his remarks earlier this week regarding climate change.

Melissa Etheridge has found a new stage.

Congress is poised to pass a transformative climate change fighting bill.

In 1997, Beijing grumbled but swallowed its irritation when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich of the U.S. House of Representatives visited Taiwan.

The Supreme Court's ruling on carbon emission controls on power plants this past week has cast light on the world of federal regulation.

In its third public hearing, the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection has focused on former President Donald Trump’s pressure on his vice president to delay or reject the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

A New York-based philanthropy is apologizing for its role in the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed hopes for global cooperation on climate change, hunger and war as dozens of climate activists demonstrated in the Swiss town of Davos.

It's been clear in recent years that people in the United States don't have much faith in their institutions.

Vice President Kamala Harris is naming Lorraine Voles as her new chief of staff, replacing Tina Flournoy who is leaving the administration, in the latest shakeup in her office, the White House said.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is being remembered as a woman of conviction and determination who liked to say she told things like they were and not the way she might like them to be.

Vice President Kamala Harris will face her highest-stakes foreign policy assignment yet this weekend in Germany, where she will try to keep European allies unified amid growing concern over the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Vice President Kamala Harris is capping off a controversial first year in office, creating history as the first woman and first Black and Indian American person in her position while fending off criticism and complaints over her focus and agenda.

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has died.

The holiday scene at the White House has been a little less merry under under COVID-19's shadow.

Young people both inside and outside the U.N. climate talks are telling world leaders that concrete measures to avoid catastrophic warming can’t wait.

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry says developed nations will start making good on their joint pledge of $100 billion in annual climate aid to developing nations next year.

Drought fueled by climate change has dropped Lake Tahoe below its natural rim and halted flows into the Truckee River.

Environmentalists are claiming victory after a company canceled plans to build an oil pipeline through southwest Tennessee and north Mississippi and over an aquifer that provides drinking water to 1 million people.

President Joe Biden’s hope of pouring billions of dollars into green infrastructure investments is running into the political obstacle of winning over Republican votes.

The mayors of a dozen major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, New York City and San Diego, are asking President Joe Biden to consult them as the administration studies how to identify and resettle people displaced by drought, rising seas and other effects of climate change.

This cover image released by Doubleday shows The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany, an illustrated compilation of folktales, poems, fiction and nonfiction by Graeme Gibson. “The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany," an illustrated compilation of folktales, poems, fiction and nonfiction that Gibson had assembled on his own, was originally published in 2005. Nothing could be more magnificent.”“The Bedside Book of Birds” is divided into nine sections — “habitats,” Gibson called them — that center on such themes as birds as omens, as revelations, avengers and mysteries. The Cold War had ended, the Berlin Wall had come down in 1989 and people were saying things like ‘the end of history.’ That was wrong, wrong, wrong,” Atwood said. They're very smart, and they have very long memories.”In his book, Gibson also describes an unexpected bond with a parrot named Harold Wilson.

Biden is taking the opposite approach of the Clinton administration to help the economy. White House aides are comparing the scope of Biden's policy ambitions to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's after the Great Depression. Biden was probably the best about this.”AdCelinda Lake conducted polling for both the Clinton and Biden campaigns. The Biden administration is now challenging China, which never embraced the values of democracy as trade advocates once believed it would. But he sees the Biden administration as pursuing new policies to help workers.

That's likely to be the case for Vice President Kamala Harris, who this week was named the new point person on immigration. This is definitely not a ceremonial task,” said Nina Rees, a former deputy assistant for domestic policy to Vice President Dick Cheney. Harris' team has clarified that the vice president does not own all of immigration policy. Kamarck's argument bucks the traditional wisdom, which says if a vice president does well on thorny issues, more credit goes to the president and, if not, it gives the president some political cover. The matter of who gets praise, or blame, is even trickier when it's clear the vice president has White House aspirations.

President Joe Biden speaks with Vice President Kamala Harris about the southern border during a meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House, Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in Washington. In delegating the matter to Harris, Biden is seeking to replicate a dynamic that played out when he served as President Barack Obama's vice president. As the first Black woman elected vice president, Harris arrived on the job as a trailblazer. The Biden administration has in recent weeks moved to open more than 10,000 new beds across the Southwest in convention centers and former oilfield camps. The White House faced criticism for limiting media access to Wednesday’s tour, keeping it to just one TV crew.

It may not be definitive — majority Democrats might try overriding an opinion they don't like. The House plans to vote Friday on its version of the relief bill, which includes the minimum wage increase. She listens to all the evidence,” Sanders, the independent Vermont senator and chief sponsor of the minimum wage proposal, said in a recent interview. AdIf MacDonough decides the minimum wage hike should remain in the bill, it would likely survive because GOP opponents would need an unachievable 60 votes to remove it. But they might choose the rarely utilized, hardball tactic of having the presiding officer, presumably Harris, ignore her and announce that the minimum wage language meets the test to stay in the overall legislation.

Fauci won a $1 million award from the Israeli Dan David Foundation for courageously defending science during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)TEL AVIV – Dr. Anthony Fauci has won the $1 million Dan David Prize for “defending science” and advocating for vaccines now being administered worldwide to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The Israel-based Dan David Foundation on Monday named President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser as the winner of one of three prizes. AdBiden's election, Fauci said, was “liberating.”The Dan David Prize, established in 2000, gives $1 million awards in three categories each year for contributions addressing the past, present and future. Fauci won the prize for achievement in the “present,” in the field of public health, the foundation said.

In this Jan. 25, 2021 photo, Secret Service vehicles parked outside of Blair House in Washington. Blair House, the official government guest house, is serving as a temporary home for Vice President Kamala Harris. AdSo Harris moved into Blair House, where President Harry Truman lived from 1948-1952 during major renovations to the White House. The original Blair House was built in 1824 by Joseph Lovell, the Army surgeon general, and later sold to journalist Francis Preston Blair. The Blair family sold the house to the U.S. government in the early 1940s, and it was turned into the president's official guest house.

(Samuel Corum/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – Wednesday's congressional joint session to count electoral votes could drag late into the night as some Republicans plan to challenge Democrat Joe Biden's victory in at least six states. Under federal law, Congress must meet Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that contain a record of their electoral votes. The Constitution requires Congress to meet and count the electoral votes. The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of the electoral votes in alphabetical order of the states. If they do not both agree, the original electoral votes are counted with no changes.

A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol, and Washington’s mayor instituted an evening curfew in an attempt to contain the violence. Together, the protests and the GOP election objections amounted to an almost unthinkable challenge to American democracy and exposed the depths of the divisions that have coursed through the country during Trump’s four years in office. Before dawn Thursday, lawmakers completed their work, confirming Biden won the presidential election. In the aftermath, several Republicans announced they would drop their objections to the election, including Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who lost her bid for reelection Tuesday. Some House lawmakers tweeted they were sheltering in place in their offices.

Lisa Mascaro, congressional correspondent for The Associated Press, has been covering Congress since 2010 and is waist-deep in the current, extraordinary saga. So the challenge that’s being mounted comes from about a dozen Republican senators — I think we’re up to 13 now — and as many as 100 House Republicans. Laws have been enacted to govern this process — and a joint session of Congress is sort of the final confirmation. The states confirm the results and the states determine the electors and then send that tally up to Washington. A number of House Republicans will challenge that.

Under federal law, Congress must meet Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that contain a record of their electoral votes. The Constitution requires Congress to meet and count the electoral votes. The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of the electoral votes in alphabetical order of the states. The appointed "tellers" from the House and Senate, members of both parties, then read each certificate out loud and record and count the votes. If they do not both agree, the original electoral votes are counted with no changes.

It begins on Tuesday with two runoff elections in Georgia that will decide control of the Senate. Biden's ability to easily set up his Cabinet and enact a legislative agenda hinges on Democrats capturing both seats. The focus shifts to Washington on Wednesday, where Congress is set to certify Biden's victory in the Electoral College. “Anyone who thought that Trump would cede control of the Republican Party post-an election loss is just dead wrong. Raffensberger rebuffed Trump's request and Biden's victory in Georgia — and other states that propelled him to victory — is not in doubt.

Under federal law, Congress must meet Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that contain a record of their electoral votes. The Constitution requires Congress to meet and count the electoral votes. The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of the electoral votes in alphabetical order of the states. At the end, the presiding officer announces who has won the majority votes for both president and vice president. If they do not both agree, the original electoral votes are counted with no changes.

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)WASHINGTON – The congressional joint session to count electoral votes is generally a routine, ceremonious affair. Under federal law, Congress must meet Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that contain a record of their electoral votes. The Constitution requires Congress to meet and count the electoral votes. The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of the electoral votes in alphabetical order of the states. The tellers record and count the votes, The presiding officer announces who has won the majority votes for both president and vice president.

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)WASHINGTON – The congressional joint session to count electoral votes is generally a routine, ceremonious affair. Under federal law, Congress must meet Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that contain a record of their electoral votes. The Constitution requires Congress to meet and count the electoral votes. The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of the electoral votes in alphabetical order of the states. The tellers record and count the votes, The presiding officer announces who has won the majority votes for both president and vice president.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)WASHINGTON – The congressional joint session to count electoral votes is generally a routine, ceremonious affair. Under federal law, Congress must meet Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that contain a record of their electoral votes. The Constitution requires Congress to meet and count the electoral votes. The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of the electoral votes in alphabetical order of the states. The tellers then record and count the votes, and the presiding officer announces who has won the majority votes for both president and vice president.

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)WASHINGTON – For weeks, President Donald Trump has put America's democratic institutions under unprecedented strain as he fights to hold power despite losing his bid for reelection. On Monday, the Electoral College did its part, formally confirming President-elect Joe Biden's victory over Trump. Anything less than certification of Biden's victory would amount to an unprecedented undermining of a free and fair American election. After both governors certified the Democrat’s victory, Trump cast them as traitors to his cause. Shortly after Biden's Electoral College victory was confirmed, Trump announced that Barr was departing the administration before Christmas.

The safe harbor deadline is six days earlier. The attention paid to the normally obscure safe harbor provision is a function of Trump's unrelenting efforts to challenge the legitimacy of the election. Judge Stephen Simanek, appointed to hear the case, has acknowledged that the case would push the state outside the electoral vote safe harbor. The safe harbor provision played a prominent role in the Bush v. Gore case after the 2000 presidential election. The Supreme Court shut down Florida’s state-court-ordered recount because the safe harbor deadline was approaching.

FILE- In this May 31, 2008 file photo, Tina Flournoy, then Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws committee member, during a hearing in Washington. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has named veteran Democratic strategist Tina Flournoy as her chief of staff. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has named Tina Flournoy, a veteran Democratic strategist and aide to the Clintons, as her chief of staff, the transition team announced Thursday. Flournoy has served as chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton since 2013. “Tina Flournoy is incredibly smart, strong, and skillful, with deeply rooted values.

WASHINGTON – The Latest on President-elect Joe Biden (all times local):9:55 p.m.President-elect Joe Biden says it is important that President Donald Trump attend his inauguration only in the sense that it would demonstrate the nation’s commitment to a peaceful transfer of power between political rivals. ___8:45 p.m.Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have made a fresh push for President-elect Joe Biden to nominate New Mexico Gov. But $207.5 million came in after Election Day as Trump repeatedly – and falsely – claimed President-elect Joe Biden won due to voter fraud. Gina Raimondo has knocked down talk that she is in the running for President-elect Joe Biden’s secretary of health and human services. ___12:25 p.m.President-elect Joe Biden has tapped former Obama administration senior economic adviser Brian Deese to be director of the National Economic Council.

Alexander left the GOP's leadership track during the Obama years to focus on his committee work. As chairman of the HELP panel, Alexander shepherded a 2015 rewrite of elementary and high school education that swept through the Senate with near-universal support. “Lamar listened to me when I told him we should write a bill together, rather than amending the Republican bill he had begun working on,” Murray said. Alexander offered a defense of the chamber's traditions, especially the filibuster that forces consensus — or, increasingly, gridlock — upon the Senate. Alexander will be replaced by Nashville businessman Bill Hagerty, a Republican backed by President Donald Trump.

President-elect Joe Bidens first wave of Cabinet picks and choices for his White House staff have prized staying power over star power, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy. President-elect Joe Biden has prized staying power over star power when making his first wave of Cabinet picks and choices for White House staff, with a premium placed on government experience and proficiency as he looks to rebuild a depleted and demoralized federal bureaucracy. “Collectively, this team has secured some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory — made possible through decades of experience working with our partners,” Biden said Tuesday as he unveiled his national security team. His choice for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was the deputy to that post under President Barack Obama. ___EDITOR'S NOTE — Jonathan Lemire has covered the White House and national politics for The Associated Press since 2013.

Andrew Cuomo is set to soon receive an International Emmy award for his once-daily televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic that killed tens of thousands of New Yorkers this spring. International Academy President & CEO Bruce L. Paisner said Cuomo is being honored with the academy's Founders Award for using his briefings to inform and calm the public. "The governor’s 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,” he said. And at least 6,600 residents have died in nursing homes, according to state data, which doesn't state how many nursing home residents died in hospitals. Still, the state's daily average of COVID-19 cases over the past seven days has more than doubled in two weeks as cases surge nationwide.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – The Latest on President-elect Joe Biden (all times local):2:45 p.m.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is proposing that Congress funnel $455 billion of unspent small business lending funds toward a new COVID-19 aid package. The Republican leader’s offer Friday comes after a morning meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Critics said the Treasury Department’s move was designed to hinder President-elect Joe Biden’s administration by halting needed lending. Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election on Nov. 7, but President Donald Trump has refused to concede. Upton says he has not been in contact with the lawmakers from his state who are meeting later with Trump at the White House.

“I told her, ‘I’m looking at you and I can tell you want to do the right thing,’” recalled Barram, who declined to reveal any details of what Murphy told him. But Murphy has yet to certify Biden as the winner, stalling the launch of the official transition process. Trump administration officials also say they will not give Biden the classified presidential daily briefing on intelligence matters until the GSA makes the ascertainment official. It doesn’t appear to be the case.”Barram, the Bush-Gore-era GSA administrator, said he felt sympathy for Murphy. But they could make it easier if five or 10 of them come out and say: ‘Biden’s won.

All of this an effort to discredit the outcome and, in the process, put democracy itself on trial. Trump is using not just his sway over the party but also the levers of government to keep Biden at bay at least for a while longer. In 2016, Trump won Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania by a combined 77,000 votes; Democrat Hillary Clinton called him on election night and publicly conceded the next day. Her advantage in the popular vote of nearly 3 million has animated the grievances of her supporters to this day, but the Electoral College arithmetic was inexorable and not to be challenged. Obama then welcomed Trump to the White House in a display to the world of the rituals of an American democratic transition.

NEW YORK – A huge fear for Wall Street coming into this month was a contested U.S. presidential election, one that could drag the market through more painful uncertainty. And yet the S&P 500 has shot up more than 9% this month and closed Friday at a record high. While Trump has leveled unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, professional investors don't see the president's tweets and legal actions ultimately changing the results. So even though Trump is contesting this election, this is not the contested election that investors feared. “The worst case wasn’t President Trump wouldn’t concede to the result,” said Brian Jacobsen, multi-asset strategist at Wells Fargo Asset Management in Wisconsin.

Joe Biden has chosen his longtime adviser Ron Klain to reprise his role as his chief of staff, installing an aide with decades of experience across. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden has chosen his longtime adviser Ron Klain to reprise his role as his chief of staff, installing an aide with decades of experience in the top role in his White House. Klain served as the coordinator to the Ebola response during the 2014 outbreak. Klain served as chief of staff for Biden during Barack Obama’s first term, was chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore in the mid-1990s and was a key adviser on the Biden campaign, guiding Biden’s debate preparations and coronavirus response. The choice of Klain underscores the effort the incoming Biden administration will place on the coronavirus response from day one.

As he contests this year's election results, Trump has not authorized President-elect Joe Biden to lay eyes on the brief. National security and intelligence experts hope Trump changes his mind, citing the need for an incoming president to be fully prepared to confront any national security issues on Day One. That's the type of information that might be in the PDB, a daily summary of high-level, classified information and analysis on national security issues that's been offered to presidents since 1946. It is coordinated and delivered by the Office of the National Intelligence Director with input from the CIA and other agencies. Biden is missing out on all counts: More than a week into his transition, Biden doesn't have access to the PDB, the agencies or government resources to help him get ready to take charge.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden has chosen his longtime adviser Ron Klain to reprise his role as his chief of staff, installing an aide with decades of experience in the top role in his White House. In a statement Wednesday night, Biden suggested he chose Klain for the position because his longtime experience in Washington had prepared him for such challenges. Klain served as chief of staff for Biden during Barack Obama’s first term, was chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore in the mid-1990s and was a key adviser on the Biden campaign, guiding Biden’s debate preparations and coronavirus response. The choice of Klain underscores the effort the incoming Biden administration will place on the coronavirus response from day one. But progressives see Klain as open to working with them on top priorities like climate change and health care.

The Senate Republicans advocated for Biden to receive the classified national security information even as they refused to acknowledge that the Democrat has won the presidential election, citing Trump's baseless claims of fraudulent votes. “At this point at least, I think he should absolutely be getting intelligence briefings," Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said of Biden. While only a handful of Republicans have called Biden the president-elect, most were comfortable Thursday challenging the Trump administration on withholding intelligence information, which could constitute a national security risk when Biden assumes office. Intelligence agencies have given generalized intelligence briefings — minus information on covert operations and sources and methods — for presidential nominees since 1952. Biden, a former vice president, has decades of experience in foreign affairs and national security.

The Associated Press and the major TV networks have long played a major role in announcing the victor in elections based on their own data. There is no national elections commission to tell the world who wins on election day, unlike in many other countries. A FRAGMENTED PROCESSThe expectation of same-day election results is a modern one, as is the notion of one single Election Day. So the vacuum remained between individual states’ results and the country’s collective decision. Major U.S. television networks follow roughly the same process, using either AP's vote count or another vote count to call races.

President-elect Joe Biden and Jill Biden, attend a service at the Philadelphia Korean War Memorial at Penn's Landing on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020, in Philadelphia. – President-elect Joe Biden quietly pushed forward with the business of preparing to become America's next commander in chief on Wednesday, ignoring President Donald Trump's unprecedented push to block his Democratic rival's transition. Biden continues to shrug off Trump's refusal to accept the election outcome, even as officials in both parties warn that the Republican president’s actions could be dangerous. The Republican president's allies on Capitol Hill, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have encouraged the president's accusations. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, among six world leaders overall, congratulated Biden on his election.

The delay has the potential to upend civic norms, impede Biden’s transition to the White House and sow doubt in the nation’s civic and election systems. Trump would need to produce ample evidence of impropriety to undo Biden’s lead, which appears unlikely. During a closed-door lunch, Vice President Mike Pence told Senate Republicans about the legal strategy. Trump and his GOP allies haven’t offered evidence of election fraud, and their legal challenges have largely been rejected by the courts. McConnell noted the potential turmoil during the transition in praising ousted Defense Secretary Mark Esper, whom Trump fired on Monday.

The case wound up in the U.S. Supreme Court, which halted the recount and handed the presidency to Bush. "The most important difference in my mind is that Florida in 2000 was much closer than any of the states in 2020," said Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political science professor who has written about the 2000 recount. “Only about 2000 votes separated Bush from Gore in the initial results out of more than 6 million cast. “There is no intermediate step between a final Supreme Court decision and violent revolution. “In 2000, Florida was the only state that was contested and neither candidate had 270 (electoral votes) without Florida," Jewett said.

FILE - In this Nov. 4, 1992, file photo, President George H.W. Bill Clinton won the 1992 president election. Most concessions are gracious — less about the loser and more about closure for the country. “Just moments ago I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the United States. President John Adams was glum, too.

If President Donald Trump follows through on ambitions to have the Supreme Court ultimately decide who wins the presidential election, it would be a case of deja vu, 20 years later. In one of the closest elections in U.S. history, George W. Bush beat Al Gore in the 2000 race for the White House, earning 271 electoral votes to 266 for Gore. Earlier that night at around 8, news networks declared that Gore had won the state and its 25 electoral votes. Courts end up deciding itAfter various recounts and lawsuits, the Florida Supreme Court ultimately ordered a recount of votes in all 67 of Florida’s counties. Bush appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which conducted two votes among itself, according to History.

Because votes are counted state by state, verdicts by the media outlets' decision desks serve as the unofficial finish line for the presidential race. The closeness of the race in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina proved another challenge. “We just have to be certain before we call a winner in the presidential election,” said Sally Buzbee, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP. Heading into Saturday, CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC — which coordinate their vote counts and exit polls — had Biden at 253 electoral votes. All know that calling a presidential election wrong is a career-wrecker.

“The Biden team is the most experienced, most prepared, most focused transition team ever, commensurate with the challenges that Biden will face” Jan. 20, said David Marchick, director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service. Ted Kaufman, who briefly was appointed senator after Biden became vice president in 2008, is directing the transition. Also heavily involved in transition are the top architects of Biden’s presidential campaign, including senior advisor Anita Dunn. That could open the door for some former Republican officeholders who endorsed Biden’s campaign to be tapped for key slots. Before Biden can get that far, though, there are bigger questions about the overall tone of the transition.

– Joe Biden's transition team isn't waiting for a verdict in the presidential race before getting to work. He also worked on Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008, and helped write legislation formalizing the presidential transition process. Clay Johnson, who headed Bush's transition team, said Biden’s advisers “can’t wait to be sure that the president-elect really is the president-elect. “And they should have started doing that last Tuesday night.”Biden's campaign has refused to comment on the transition process. The transition process formally starts once the General Service Administration determines the winner based on all available facts.

The conservative evangelical Christians who helped send Trump to the White House four years ago stuck by him again in 2020. But even if Trump doesnt get a second term, some conservative Christians see reasons to celebrate in this years election results. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)WASHINGTON – The conservative evangelical Christians who helped send Donald Trump to the White House four years ago stuck by him in 2020. But even if Trump doesn’t get a second term, some conservative Christians see reasons to celebrate in this year’s election results. White evangelical voters made up 23% of the vote nationwide and overwhelmingly favored Trump this fall, with about 8 in 10 backing him, according to AP VoteCast.

Biden voters overwhelming say they want the federal government to prioritize limiting the spread of the virus, even if that means further damage to the economy. About half of Trump voters also called the economy and jobs the top issue facing the nation, while only 1 in 10 Biden voters named it most important. On race and justice issues, Biden voters almost universally said racism is a serious problem in U.S. society and in policing. But only a slim majority of Trump voters, who are overwhelming white, called racism a serious problem. Results in high-turnout counties underscore that trend: Republican-leaning places became more Republican and Democratic areas more Democratic.

And he had demanded in advance that the results be known on Election Day, which is never a given. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell waited until Friday morning to tweet that “Every legal vote should be counted. All sides must get to observe the process.”Whether that dynamic will continue if fuller election results deliver the presidency to Biden is another key unanswered question. If the vote count goes against him, does he really want to be remembered as the president who burned down the building on his way out the door? ___EDITOR’S NOTE -- Nancy Benac is White House news editor and has covered government and politics for The Associated Press for four decades.

Biden voters overwhelming say they want the federal government to prioritize limiting the spread of the virus, even if that means further damage to the economy. About half of Trump voters also called the economy and jobs the top issue facing the nation, while only 1 in 10 Biden voters named it most important. On race and justice issues, Biden voters almost universally said racism is a serious problem in U.S. society and in policing. But only a slim majority of Trump voters, who are overwhelming white, called racism a serious problem. Results in high-turnout counties underscore that trend: Republican-leaning places became more Republican and Democratic areas more Democratic.

WASHINGTON – Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed Trump campaign lawsuits Thursday, undercutting a campaign legal strategy to attack the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean President Donald Trump’s defeat. “But we think there’ll be a lot of litigation because we can't have an election stolen like this,” Trump said. Campaign officials said earlier they were considering similar challenges in a dozen other counties around the state. In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, the Trump campaign won an appellate ruling to get party and campaign observers closer to election workers who are processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said additional legal action was expected and would be focused on giving campaign officials access to where ballots were being counted.

WASHINGTON – America woke up Wednesday morning without a winner of the presidential election. There are also roughly 20 states that allow ballots received after Election Day to be counted if they were postmarked by the day of the election. Some states, including Florida, began counting absentee ballots days before Election Day — and had definitive results within hours of the polls closing. And they will prevail.”Vote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end. ___Eds: Story has been updated to correct that 2000 Supreme Court decision came more than a month after Election Day, not more than two months

(AP Photo/Stephen Groves)MADISON, Wis. – Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won battleground state Wisconsin on Wednesday, edging out President Donald Trump in a state that was crucial to the incumbent’s victory four years ago. The last presidential recount, done in 2016, cost Green Party candidate Jill Stein $3.5 million. In the recount of the 2016 presidential race, the state elections commission ordered on Nov. 29 that the recount begin on Dec. 1. In the Wisconsin recount, Democrat Hillary Clinton gained 713 votes while Trump picked up 844, widening his lead by 131 votes. There were several reasons why some ballots were counted or not during the 2016 recount, said Scott McDonnel, the Dane County clerk, on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, counting votes accurately for an entire nation, in an election whose jurisdiction is divided up state by state, can be a cumbersome process. Here, Julie Pace, Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press, explains why patience is pivotal. EXPECTATIONS AND REALITY“One of the biggest things that I would encourage people to do today is to have patience,” says Pace, a longtime political and White House correspondent. "There’s no expectation that we would definitely call the race for the presidency on election night. The amount of votes cast in advance, paired with rules in some states that those votes can't be counted until Election Day, are part of what make 2020 different.

The AP plans to write stories explaining how its experts make decisions or why, in tight contests, they are holding back. “The general public has a more intense desire to understand it at a nitty-gritty level,” Buzbee said. The closer a race is, the more AP's decision desk relies on actual votes rather than VoteCast. The AP's sprawling election night operation also compiles the vote from across the United States, as it has since 1848. The AP's vote calls were 99.8% accurate in 2016, flawless in calling presidential and congressional elections in each state.

State leaders eliminated computer punchcard ballots, implemented statewide recount laws and made it easy to cast and process ballots before Election Day. Though there are other scenarios that make elections officials nervous, the computer punch-card ballots that fueled 2000's chaos are buried in history's landfill. Casting valid ballots and processing them is now easier, even before Election Day, and the Legislature has enacted clearer laws governing recounts. If the statewide margin then is within a half-percentage point — likely about 55,000 votes — a machine recount would occur. These voters are notified and have until two days after the election to prove their identity, but many won’t respond.

This combination photo shows poster art for political documentaries, from left, "All In: The Fight for Democracy," "Boys State," "537 Votes," "Slay the Dragon," and "The Fight." The election has unleashed an avalanche of documentaries like no season before it. In a presidential election of enormous stakes, filmmakers have rushed to finish their films before Election Day. (Amazon, from left, Apple TV Plus, HBO Max, Magnolia Pictures, Magnolia Pictures via AP)NEW YORK – The election has unleashed an avalanche of documentaries like no season before it. In a presidential election of enormous stakes, filmmakers have rushed to finish their films before Election Day, to try to inform, sway and entertain the electorate.

Since the Electoral College was established as the means of electing a president, it hasn’t been often when a president won the election without winning the popular vote. Despite the fact that Jackson had more electoral votes and won the popular vote, the House voted Adams as President. Cleveland ended up winning the popular vote by more than 90,000 votes, but Harrison won the electoral vote, 233-168. That gave Bush a 271-266 win in the electoral vote, even though Gore won the popular vote by roughly 500,000 more votes. But the electoral vote was a completely different matter, with Trump earning 304 votes to Clinton’s 227.

On election night, state-based analysts and editors in Washington at AP's Decision Desk also use that vote count to “call races," or declare the winners. HOW AP GATHERS THE VOTESShortly before polls close, roughly 4,000 stringers — temporary freelancers — arrive at county election offices. As officials begin to release results, these stringers phone in the raw vote totals to AP colleagues around the country. These include asking whether there are problems in the stringer's county and challenging the details if the results seem suspect. PRECINCT REPORTING CAN BE TRICKY BUSINESSWhen tabulating results, AP publishes the percentage of precincts reporting alongside the vote count.

“It is theoretically possible but practically difficult.”While Trump has multiple roads to victory, his most likely route hinges on winning two crucial battleground states: Florida and Pennsylvania. And Trump voters are more enthusiastic about their candidate than Democrats are about Biden. Fox News polls released Wednesday show Biden with a clear advantage in Michigan and a slight one in Wisconsin. In Pennsylvania, recent polls show Biden ahead but vary on the size of his lead. Trump campaign aides stress that number is five times Trump’s 2016 vote margin.

But that fiasco could be nothing compared to this year’s election -- and not just regarding who is elected president. There will be more mail-in ballots submitted than ever. The United States Postal Service is struggling with financial issues, which could delay the mailing of ballots throughout the country, according to CNBC. In August, the USPS sent letters to 46 states and Washington, D.C. warning that some main-in ballots might not arrive in time to be counted by Election Day, according to the Washington Post. Mail-in ballots take longer to count.

FILE - Director Adam McKay appears during a photo call for the film "Vice" at the 2019 Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany on Feb. 11, 2019. It’s also a lively film that resurrects 2000 not just via hanging chads but by following the cultural atmosphere. Alongside interviews with backroom players like Roger Stone, “SNL” sketches make frequent cameos — including some McKay wrote. McKAY: The movie we’re making right now is about a comet that’s going to hit Earth. McKAY: I think it’s the strangest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.

Florida begins in-person early voting in much of the state Monday. With its 29 electoral votes, Florida is crucial to both candidates in order to win the White House. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Florida begins in-person early voting in much of the state Monday as the Trump campaign tries to cut into an early advantage Democrats have posted in mail-in votes in the key swing state. Under state law, counties can offer up to two weeks of early voting and many do, including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and other population centers. Elections officials are predicting that between mail-in ballots and early voting, about 70% of the ballots expected will be cast before Election Day.

In the short term, they’re fully expecting the big swings that swept the market in recent weeks to continue until Election Day, and perhaps beyond. Markets famously hate uncertainty, and not knowing who will lead the United States for weeks following Election Day would be a huge unknown. Consider 2000, when the S&P 500 dropped 5% in about five weeks after Election Day before Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush. That, though, also happened during the near-halving of the S&P 500 from March 2000 to October 2002 as the dot-com bubble deflated. If one were to happen, strategists at Goldman Sachs say the S&P 500 could fall to 3,100 in the near term.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Saturday issued an urgent call to action to defend the planet and help the poor in his second TED talk. The pontiff, known for his affinity for social media and technology, said in a videotaped message to a TED conference on climate change that the coronavirus pandemic had put a focus on the social-environmental challenge facing the globe. He called on investors to exclude companies that do not taking into account the environment, as have many faith-based organizations already have. “In fact, the earth must be taken care of, cultivated and protected; we cannot continue to squeeze it like an orange. And we can say this, taking care of the Earth is a human right,” Francis said.

FILE - In this June 15, 2020, file photo the columns of the Supreme Court are seen with the Capitol at right, in Washington. But if Trump fills Ginsburg's seat, there will be six conservative justices, three of them appointed by him. A more conservative court might be seen as more sympathetic to striking down the Affordable Care Act, but the court might still choose not to. Earlier this year, a divided Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, reasserting a commitment to abortion rights. ___GUNSThe Supreme Court has for years been reluctant to take on new guns cases, but that could change under a more conservative court.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – In close elections, it doesn't take much for third-party candidates to play an outsize role — as Democrats learned the hard way in 2016. A vital third-party candidate would likely help him tremendously.”But third-party candidates are facing hurdles that didn't exist four years ago, potentially weakening their impact. In a court decision last week, the Green Party candidate was barred from appearing on Pennsylvania’s ballot. “I saw last time, there’s no hope in a third-party candidate in this basically two-party system that we have. But the president’s team, which has denied playing a role in West’s bid, has done little game-planning for a third-party candidate.

ATLANTA – Joe Biden is resisting calls from President Donald Trump and even some fellow Democrats to release his list of potential Supreme Court picks seven months after he pledged to name the first Black female justice. A Supreme Court nomination is certain to amplify those dynamics. He’s since nominated Justices Neil Gorsuch, who appeared on a preelection list in 2016, and Brett Kavanaugh, who appeared on a post-election list. There is some irony in Supreme Court politics being such a potentially prominent variable in Biden’s presidential hopes. Even a 5-4 Supreme Court majority deciding the 2000 presidential election in favor of Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore did little to shift campaign dynamics concerning the court.