Hundreds of activists formed a human chain outside one of the main plenary halls at the United Nations climate summit on what is traditionally their biggest protest day during the two-week talks.

Environmental advocates released reports Friday decrying fossil fuel industry influence at these climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, called COP29.

Donald Trump’s presidential win is going to be certified in Congress in January by the candidate he beat, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Former President Donald Trump won Oklahoma and its seven electoral votes on Tuesday, defeating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Both Republicans and Democrats are preparing for a potentially lengthy battle in the courts over the results of the 2024 election.

Former President Bill Clinton is urging voters in rural Georgia to get behind Kamala Harris' campaign for the office he once held.

Elections are a foundation of democracy, but they're also human exercises.

With the American electorate so evenly divided, there will be elections in November so close that officials will have to recount the votes.

Transgender rights, the regulation of “ghost guns” and the death penalty highlight the Supreme Court’s election-season term that begins Monday.

Already the longest-lived of the 45 men to serve as U.S. president, Jimmy Carter is about to reach the century mark.

The Biden administration is moving to clarify how homeowners and businesses can receive lucrative tax credits for installing electric vehicle chargers.

As Vice President Kamala Harris begins her fall campaign for the White House, she can look to history and hope for better luck than others who have tried the same.

Former President Bill Clinton is preparing to deliver his 12th address to the Democratic National Convention.

Presidential conventions can be memorable for floor fights and bloody battles on the streets outside or for scenes that stand out as outlandish or awkward.

Organizers of next month’s Democratic National Convention are tossing out their script.

Former President Barack Obama has found himself in a vexing position as his old running mate Joe Biden negotiates one of the most sensitive political moments for the Democratic Party in decades.

One of President Joe Biden’s signature laws aimed to invigorate renewable energy manufacturing in the U.S. It will also help a solar panel company reap billions of dollars.

Vice President Kamala Harris is pledging America’s full support in backing Ukraine and global efforts to achieve “a just and lasting peace” in the face of Russia’s invasion.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers and actor Michelle Yeoh are among a diverse group of 19 people who have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden.

Vice President Al Gore remembers the late Joe Lieberman as a “mensch” who both bridged partisan political divides and wasn’t afraid to go against mainstream political currents.

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has died, according to his family.

Will Lester, a longtime reporter and editor for The Associated Press who played a critical role in the wire service’s 2000 election-night decision not to call the presidential race, has died.

It's been 12 years since a pair of conservative writers compared a prominent climate scientist to a convicted child molester for his depiction of global warming.

It’s the killer detail in international climate talks: Consensus.

The influence of fossil fuels was a focal point Monday at the United Nations annual climate conference known as COP28.

Former Vice President Al Gore says don’t trust the oil and gas industry to report their actual carbon pollution and he adds that the man running United Nations climate talks runs one of the dirtiest oil companies out there.

Leaders of developing nations launched into the second-day of a U.N. climate summit to press rich industrialized countries to share their knowhow to fight global warming and ease the financial burdens they face.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's recent trip to China was highlighted by a surprise meeting with leader Xi Jinping.

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.