Stories by Associated Press

Regardless of the presidential election outcome, a vexing issue remains to be decided: Will the U.S. be able to tame a perilous pandemic that is surging as holidays, winter and other challenges approach? 

The fate of the presidency hung in the balance Wednesday morning, as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden battled for three familiar battleground states: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Even before Election Day, the 2020 race was the most litigated in memory. President Donald Trump is promising more to come.

President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden each have a path to win the White House. Grab the binoculars and focus on these 10 states as election returns start rolling in.

The decision marked the latest turn in a complex legal battle over the rule that has been among President Donald Trump’s most aggressive steps in overhauling the nation’s immigration system. 

A shift to mail voting is increasing the chances that Americans will not know the winner of the 2020 presidential race on election night. But that doesn’t mean the results will be flawed or fraudulent. 

Never before in modern history have voters faced a choice between candidates offering such opposite visions as the nation faces multiple crises.

President Donald Trump is suggesting that he will fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after Tuesday’s election, as his rift with the nation’s top infectious disease expert widens.

America is poised for a presidential election that renders a verdict on the nation’s role in the world and the direction of its economy, on its willingness to contain an escalating pandemic and its ability to confront systemic racial inequity.

Black Lives Matter has been a lot of things in its brief, fiery life. It has been a slogan, a rallying point. A movement that led protests coast to coast. A heaven-sent resource. Now, BLM’s influence faces a test.

Sean Connery, the charismatic Scottish actor who rose to international superstardom as suave, fearless secret agent James Bond and then carved out an equally successful, Oscar-winning career, has died. He was 90.

In a campaign that has been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 227,000 Americans and staggered the economy, the candidates’ clashing overtures stood as a reflection of their leadership styles.

A 17-year-old from Illinois accused of killing two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been extradited to stand trial on homicide charges.

Over the past 10 days, the U.S. Supreme Court has answered questions about an extended timeline for receiving and counting ballots in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Here’s how they ruled. 

Tony La Russa, the Hall of Famer who won a World Series with the Oakland Athletics and two more with the St. Louis Cardinals, is returning to manage the Chicago White Sox 34 years after they fired him.

Applications for unemployment aid fell 40,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said. They fell in 30 states, including big drops in California, Florida and Texas. But claims rose significantly in Arizona, Illinois and Michigan.

With next week’s election looming, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google received a hectoring from Republicans at a Senate hearing Wednesday for alleged anti-conservative bias in the companies’ social media platforms.

Lawyers for two Black people who were shot by suburban Chicago police said Wednesday that video shared by authorities showed a bullet-riddled car but not the entire incident.

A woman who was shot by police last week in suburban Chicago said Tuesday that officers did nothing more than cover her boyfriend with a blanket after he was shot and left him on the ground to die.

As President Trump enters a frenzied final week of campaigning, he continues to hold mass rallies that often defy local public health rules. The campaign says supporters are merely exercising their First Amendment rights. 

Wall Street’s losses mounted for the second straight day Tuesday as momentum slows on worries about rising virus counts and Washington’s inability to deliver more aid to the economy. 

Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court late Monday by a deeply divided Senate, with Republicans overpowering Democrats to install President Donald Trump’s nominee days before the election.

In a surprise announcement from his studio window to faithful standing below in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said the churchmen would be elevated to a cardinal’s rank in a ceremony on Nov. 28. 

Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly Sunday to advance Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett toward final confirmation despite Democratic objections, just over a week before the presidential election. 

President Donald Trump assured supporters packed shoulder to shoulder at weekend rallies that “we’re rounding the turn” on the coronavirus and mocked challenger Joe Biden for raising alarms about the pandemic.

Scientists in Washington state have discovered the first nest of so-called murder hornets in the United States and plan to wipe it out Saturday to protect native honeybees, officials said.