AL GORE

The proliferation of satellites is helping to pinpoint emissions sources and to hold countries and corporations accountable.

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.

Greta Thunberg branded the U_N_ climate talks in Glasgow so far “a failure."

In a state famous for election recounts, the leading candidates in Democratic primary for a South Florida congressional seat left open when Democratic U.S. Rep Alcee Hastings died were separated by 12 votes.

The more institutional investors disinvest from polluting companies, the greater the risk that climate damage will continue unabated.

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

Climate change has been hard for most of us to see and feel. That's beginning to change, and more people than ever before are committed to finding solutions.

Vice presidents live in a house on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory. Each second family has decorated the home according to their tastes.

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.

The former Democratic presidential nominee described Republicans' messages about the 2020 election as 'damaging to our democracy.'

My parents and many other African Americans in Southern states could not cast ballots until President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

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.

If we refuse to accept reality and treat each other as mortal enemies, we will be the Divided States of America, rooting for each other's failure.

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.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Kogan, a champion of opening public access to legal proceedings, has died, a court spokesman said Friday. He was chief justice of the court from 1996 to 1998, after which he went into private legal practice. In 1997, Kogan ordered broadcasts of all Florida Supreme Court oral arguments over cable and satellite TV and via livestream. “Justice Kogan was a well-respected member of the Florida legal community," firm CEO Chris Poole said Friday in a statement. In 1980, he was named a circuit judge in Miami and then, a few years later, a justice on the Florida Supreme Court.

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.

Some Republican lawmakers were in the midst of raising objections to the results on his behalf when the proceedings were abruptly halted by the mob. 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.

Looking back at George W. Bush, Al Gore's contentious 2000 race Two decades ago on December 12, one of the most contentious presidential races in American history was finally settled when the Supreme Court delivered a 5-4 opinion that handed the 2000 election to George W. Bush over Al Gore. Jeff Glor looks back at the historic national moment, as the U.S. reckons with challenges to its democratically-held elections today.

The safe harbor deadline is six days earlier. 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. When Florida's electoral votes, decisive in Bush's victory, reached Congress, several Black House members protested, but no senators joined in.

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.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds a coronavirus playbook speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. McEnany suggested that the team for President-elect Joe Biden can use the coronavirus playbook. McEnany ticked through the administration’s timeline for getting an approved vaccine to the public, and held up a copy of the plan. 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.

Attorney David Boies, who represented former Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election recount fight, told CNBC on Thursday that President Donald Trump's efforts to challenge the election results are futile. "There is no way that Trump can overturn these election results," said Boies, chairman of the New York City-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner. The election results have not been finalized yet, and the Electoral College has yet to officially cast its ballots. "There simply is not a path — not a legal path, not a political path and, as I say, certainly not a military coup path — for President Trump to remain in office," Boies said. Boies defended Trump's right to take election disputes to court, as his one-time client, Gore, did in the razor-thin 2000 election.

“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.

– Vowing “to get right to work,” President-elect Joe Biden shrugged off President Donald Trump's fierce refusal to accept the election outcome as “inconsequential,” even as Democrats elsewhere warned that the Republican president's actions were dangerous. But just 71 days before he will be inaugurated, Trump and his allies seemed determined to make Biden's transition as difficult as possible. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, among six world leaders overall, congratulated Biden on his election. Meanwhile, Biden tried to stay focused on health care in the midst of the worst health crisis in more than a century. The closed-door meeting marked the first time a Biden transition official has addressed the Democrats' Senate caucus since last week's 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.

CNBC's Jim Cramer said Thursday that investors are cheering the prospect of Democrat Joe Biden becoming president because Biden would provide more stability than President Donald Trump. Stocks were surging Thursday, building on Wednesday's post-election rally despite the absence of a winner in the presidential race. At present, Biden holds an advantage in the Electoral College, with 253 votes compared with Trump's 214. NBC News has not made an official call in the presidential race or on the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. However, should Biden win the White House while the Republicans maintain control of the Senate, Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street" that the day-to-day machinations of Washington will be less of a focus for Wall Street.

AdvertisementEach state has different rules regarding when election workers are allowed to start preparing ballots for counting. At least five battleground states will accept ballots after Nov. 3 if they’ve been postmarked on or before that day. Others require absentee ballots to be received by election night. There is no requirement that a winner be known election night, and states do not finalize results that night. AdvertisementBut, Foley stressed, “the only thing that can exist on election night are preliminary results.”“Whether it’s the president or anybody else, it’s just inaccurate to think that you could have an answer on election night that’s an official, legal answer,” Foley said.

A day after President Donald Trump refused to promise a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the 2020 election, lawmakers pushed back on his statements. How many places in the world where you actually have a peaceful transfer of power to begin with?" Graham added, "there is no alternative to a peaceful transfer of power." "Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus," tweeted Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who has been critical of Trump. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Thursday, "There will be a very peaceful transition," according to The New York Times.

Former US Vice-President Al Gore, speaks at the Securing a Sustainable Future for the Amazon, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 22, 2020. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore believes the climate crisis is getting worse "way faster" than most people realize, describing it as a "challenge to our moral imagination." Delivering closing remarks at a World Economic Forum panel session on Wednesday, Gore spoke passionately about the climate emergency. At one stage, the co-founder of Generation Investment Management compared the scale of the crisis to a number of infamous historic events. It is "way worse" than many realize and intensifying "way faster" than people appreciate, Gore said.

Gore's spirited speech Wednesday night kicked off a series of climate presentations that continued around the globe on Thursday. Called "24 Hours of Reality," it's an endeavor of The Climate Reality Project, founded by Gore to educate the public and inspire action on climate change. Gore took aim at Trump's characterization of the Central American migrants coming to the U.S. Gore called them "climate refugees" and said many are fleeing drought. Gore called climate change "the life and death struggle of people alive today," comparing it to 9/11, Pearl Harbor and such World War II battles as Dunkirk and Midway. Such an existential crisis demands an "aspirational set of goals," he said, expressing support for the Democrats' sweeping Green New Deal proposal to combat climate change.

Attorney David Boies argued several cases before Justice Antonin Scalia and the U.S. Supreme Court. Boies successfully fought against Proposition 8, California's attempt to ban same-sex marriage. He also represented Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 election recount. Boies joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss how Scalia differed from the other justices and how his death will impact the pending cases before the Supreme Court.

Al Gore and the 2016 presidential landscape A recently published New York Times profile on former Vice President Al Gore focuses on his continuing environmental efforts, but can questions of politics be too far behind? As senior White House correspondent Major Garrett notes, the 2016 political landscape is starting to look a lot like the 1990s. Garrett joins CBSN with more.