Biden promotes unity, turns to business of transition

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Joe Biden used his first national address as president-elect to vow to heal a deeply divided nation, declaring it was time to “let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end” and reaching out to the millions of people who voted against him to say, “Let's give each other a chance.”

His calls for reconciliation at a Saturday evening victory celebration came even as President Donald Trump continued to argue that the election had been stolen from him, an indication that the divisive politics that have gripped the U.S. over the past four years are far from over.

It also suggested that even as Biden seeks to build out a government during his transition to the presidency, the president has little interest in helping him do so.

“For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment,” Biden said during a drive-in event in Wilmington, Delaware. "It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again.”

Biden heads into his first full day as president-elect on Sunday with key staffing decisions to make as the coronavirus rages. The always-frenzied 10-week transition period before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 already has been shortened by the extra time it took to determine the winner of Tuesday's election.

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Americans pivot from red-hot Trump to Biden's seasoned cool

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a crystallizing moment at the last presidential debate, Donald Trump and Joe Biden fielded a question about people of color who live alongside chemical plants and oil refineries that seem to be making them sick.

As is his way, Biden responded with I've-been-there empathy. He recalled growing up so close to Delaware refineries that when his mom drove him to school in a morning frost, the wipers spread an oil slick on the windshield.

Trump responded in his own way, too. “The families that we’re talking about are employed heavily and they are making a lot of money,” he presumed. “More money than they’ve ever made ... tremendous money."

These men were true to form, authentic in that exchange. On debate night and through the campaign they offered voters a distinct choice between a red-hot president who put the bottom line before all else and an unflashy Democrat who invited Americans to cool down and come together.

Biden promised straight talk and sobriety on the lethal pandemic, respect for the facts (if you don’t count his flubs), aspirations for racial justice and a revival of the verities of American democracy that Democrats said Trump was tearing apart.

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Trump considers how to keep up fight, find a graceful exit

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump never admits defeat. But he faces a stark choice now that Democrat Joe Biden has won the White House: Concede graciously for the sake of the nation or don’t — and get evicted anyway.

After nearly four tortured days of counting yielded a victory for Biden on Saturday, Trump was still insisting the race was not over. He threw out baseless allegations of voter fraud, promised a flurry of legal action and fired off all-caps tweets falsely insisting he'd “WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT."

Trump is not expected to ever formally concede, according to people close to him, but is likely to grudgingly vacate the White House at the end of his term. His ongoing efforts to paint the election as unfair are seen both as an effort to soothe a bruised ego and to show his loyal base of supporters that he is still fighting. That could be key to keeping them energized for what comes next.

“He intends to fight,” Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow said as it was becoming clear that the president was headed for defeat.

Would Trump ever concede? “I doubt it,” said Trump’s longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone, whom the president recently pardoned. As a result, Stone said, Biden will have "a cloud over his presidency with half the people in the country believing that he was illegitimately elected.”

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Message of Election 2020: Trump lost, but Trumpism did not

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lost. But Trumpism did not.

It won in the parts of the country and with the voters whom Trump catered to over four years, constantly jabbing the hard edges of almost every contentious cultural issue into Red America, on the bet that fear and anger were a winning hand. It almost was.

Joe Biden defeated Trump to win the presidency, and is on pace to win up to 306 electoral votes, a total that would match what Trump exaggerated as a “landslide” four years ago. In a typical election year, such a victory would mean Biden would have carried other Democrats along with him. Instead, several promising Democratic Senate and House candidates, including incumbents, lost.

For Trump, the situation was the inverse. His popularity among his base voters helped protect incumbent Republicans but was not enough to save him. He won more votes for president than any other candidate. Except Biden. The rejection of Trump was personal.

The election did little to suggest that the country was suddenly less polarized. Trump wrung out votes from areas where he already had a core of support, in rural and small-town America. Biden did the same, only more, in urban and suburban America while also holding down Trump margins in some rural areas. The outcome didn’t change the fact that much of the country is still speaking two different political languages.

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Black leaders greet Biden win, pledge to push for equality

DETROIT (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden’s victory was celebrated by civil rights activists and Black leaders who warned that a tough road lies ahead to address America’s persistent inequalities and the racial division that Donald Trump fueled during his presidency.

Biden will take office in January as the nation confronts a series of crises that have taken a disproportionate toll on Black Americans and people of color, including the pandemic and resulting job losses. Many cities saw protests against racial injustice during a summer of unrest.

During a contentious campaign against Trump, Biden made explicit appeals for the support of Black voters. He pledged to unify the country, acknowledged systemic racism, criticized his rival for stoking division and picked Kamala Harris as his running mate, making her the first Black woman on a major party's presidential ticket. While those were all welcomed steps, Black leaders and activists say they will keep pushing the incoming administration to do more.

“This is just the beginning of change and the election of any one administration does not mean the work is done,” said civil rights leader Martin Luther King III, who noted the vision of his father, Martin Luther King Jr., has yet to be fully realized in America, 57 years after he delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. “Dad and Mom wanted to eradicate poverty, racism and violence from our society and that will take a monumental effort. A Biden-Harris administration has to constantly be challenged and pushed to move."

Black voters powered Biden's successful campaign, particularly in critical states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia. Nine in 10 Black voters nationwide supported him, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters across the country.

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Analysis: Biden claims a mandate that will quickly be tested

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden’s bet on the 2020 race was a simple one: that a nation riven by deep partisanship was ready for a reset.

He knew he wouldn’t be the most electric candidate or the most compelling speaker. He knew that he was running as an old, white man in a party that is growing younger and more diverse. He knew that to win, he would need both the energy of liberals and the support of centrists, slices of the electorate with little in common beyond a shared disdain for President Donald Trump.

Biden ultimately emerged victorious, a moment of both celebration and relief for his supporters. But the results sent mixed messages about the nation's eagerness to turn the page on one of the most polarized periods in modern American history.

Biden carried some of the key battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, by narrow margins. He won more votes nationwide than any presidential candidate — more than 74 million and counting — but Trump's popular vote total also topped previous records, reflecting the president's hold not only on his core supporters but the Republican Party at large.

With victory in hand, Biden has claimed a mandate. Whether he actually has one will soon be put to the test.

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Firecrackers and prayers as Indians celebrate Harris' win

THULASENDRAPURAM, India (AP) — Waking up to the news of Kamala Harris’ election as U.S. vice president, overjoyed people in her Indian grandfather’s hometown set off firecrackers and offered prayers on Sunday.

Groups gathered at street corners in Thulasendrapuram, a tiny village of 350 people, reading newspapers and chatting about Joe Biden and Harris' victory before moving to a temple.

A woman wrote in color powder outside her home: “Congratulations Kamala Harris. Pride of our village. Vanakkam (Greetings) America.”

Most of them had gone to sleep by the time Biden clinched the winning threshold of 270 Electoral College votes, making Harris the first woman and the first person of South Asian descent to be elected vice president.

“For two or three days we kept our fingers crossed while the result was delayed,” said village resident Kalidas Vamdayar. “Now it’s a joyful moment for us. We are enjoying it.”

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World leaders hope for fresh start after Biden win

World leaders on Sunday cheered Joe Biden’s election as U.S. president as a chance to enhance cooperation on climate change, the coronavirus and other problems after four years of President Donald Trump's rejection of international alliances.

Trump had yet to concede defeat, but Western and Asian allies expressed hoped for a fresh start following Trump's “American First” trade policies, withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and attacks on NATO and the World Health Organization.

In Asia, a region on edge about the strategic ambitions of China's ruling Communist Party, the elected leaders of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan invoked “shared values” with Washington and expressed hope for close relations.

“I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the Japan-US Alliance and ensure peace, freedom, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond,” said Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Twitter. President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said he looked forward to working together “for our shared values.”

Word of the victory in Pennsylvania that pushed Barack Obama’s former vice president past the threshold of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to take over the Oval Office spread around the globe, sparking celebrations.

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Suu Kyi party set to win Myanmar vote with weak opposition

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Voters in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, turned up early Sunday in large numbers to vote in nationwide elections that are expected to return to power the party of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won the last elections in 2015 in a landslide, ending more than five decades of military-dictated rule in the country.

With Myanmar under threat from a coronavirus surge, mask wearing was mandatory in the lines at polling stations, and many voters also donned plastic face shields and gloves. Body temperatures were taken and hand sanitizing gel was freely dispensed by officials, but social distancing rules were only fitfully observed.

Traditional campaigning ahead of the election was severely limited by social distancing and quarantines in some areas.

“The voter turnout here is more than we expected,” said Zaw Win Tun, a neighborhood administrator and official at Yangon's Pho Myae polling station. "I think people are excited to vote, as they would like to escape from the political struggles. They want real democracy.” He did not elaborate, but appeared to be referring to a power struggle between Suu Kyi's civilian government and the military.

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Eta makes landfall on Cuba as Guatemala searches for victims

PURULHA, Guatemala (AP) — A strengthened Tropical Storm Eta made landfall on Cuba early Sunday, and has its sights set on the southern tip of Florida, after leaving dozens dead and over 100 missing in Central America which it hit last week as a major hurricane.

Eta breached Cuba even as searchers in Guatemala were still digging for people believed buried by a massive, rain-fueled landslide. Authorities say 15 people are confirmed dead and at least 109 are missing in Guatemala, many of them in the landslide in San Cristobal Verapaz.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued tropical storm warnings for southern Florida and the Florida Keys, and warnings were issued for central Cuba; parts of southern Florida and the Keys were even put under a hurricane watch.

The Hurricane Center said Eta was located about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Camaguey, Cuba, Sunday morning and was moving northeast at 12 mph (19 kph) with winds of 65 mph (100 kph). The system was expected to approach the Florida Keys and south Florida late Sunday or Monday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Saturday for eight counties at the end of the state as Eta approached, urging residents to stock up on supplies. South Florida started emptying ports and a small number of shelters opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low lying areas.